Effect of coupling agent on polylactic acid/polypropylene and polylactic acid/polyamide 6 foam composites

The main part of polymer materials generated from fossil fuels do not degrade after completing their usage life and then begin to be waste in the environment. This situation has led to the emphasis on environmentally friendly, biodegradable, and bio-based polymers obtained from renewable sources as an alternative. In recent years, several studies are concentrated on especially lightweight and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission limitations. In this work, the goal was to investigate at the same time environmentally friendly and lightweight polymer foam composites based on polylactic acid (PLA) polymer without lowering the performances of the materials. In this aim, polymer foam composites containing polypropylene (PP), polyamide 6 (PA6) and PLA were produced (PLA/PA6 (30:70) and PLA/PP (30:70)) with a chemical blowing agent (CBA) introduced at 1.5 wt.% to the polymer mixture. To improve the interpolymer compatibility and foaming activity maleic anhydride-grafted polylactic acid (PLA-g-MA) was utilized as coupling agent (CA) in different ratios (1, 3 and 5 wt.%). From the evaluation of the polymer mixtures in terms of their lightness, thermal and mechanical strength, the most appropriate CA ratios were determined as 1 wt.% for foamed PLA/PP (30:70) mixtures and 3 wt.% for foamed PLA/PA6 (30:70) mixtures.