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Lightweight, Strong and High Heat-Resistant Poly(lactide acid) Foams via Microcellular Injection Molding with Self-Assembly Nucleating Agent

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Abstract

Poly(lactide acid) (PLA) foams have shown considerable promise as eco-friendly alternatives to nondegradable plastic foams, such as polystyrene (PS) foams. Nevertheless, PLA foam typically suffers from low heat-resistance and poor cellular structure stemming from its inherent slow crystallization rate and low melt strength. In this study, a high-performance PLA foam with well-defined cell morphology, exceptional strength and enhanced heat-resistance was successfully fabricated via a core-back microcellular injection molding (MIM) process. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results revealed that the added hydrazine-based nucleating agent (HNA) significantly increased the crystallization temperature and accelerated the crystallization process of PLA. Remarkably, the addition of a 1.5 wt% of HNA led to a significant reduction in PLA’s cell size, from 43.5 µm to 2.87 µm, and a remarkable increase in cell density, from 1.08×107 cells/cm3 to 2.15×1010 cells/cm3. This enhancement resulted in a final crystallinity of approximately 55.7% for the PLA blend foam, a marked improvement compared to the pure PLA foam. Furthermore, at 1.5 wt% HNA concentration, the tensile strength and tensile toughness of PLA blend foams demonstrated remarkable improvements of 136% and 463%, respectively. Additionally, the Vicat softening temperature of PLA blend foam increased significantly to 134.8 °C, whereas the pure PLA foam exhibited only about 59.7 °C. These findings underscore the potential for the preparation of lightweight injection-molded PLA foam with enhanced toughness and heat-resistance, which offers a viable approach for the production of high-performance PLA foams suitable for large-scale applications.

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Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The author’s contact information: wanglong@nimte.ac.cn (L.W.), wgzheng@nimte.ac.cn (W.G.Z.)

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52003280), the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. LQ21B040003), the S&T Innovation 2025 Major Special Programme of Ningbo (No. 2021Z052), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Pioneer Hundred Talents Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Xiao-Hu Bing & Xiao Zhou

  2. Ningbo Key Lab of Polymer Materials, Ningbo Institute of Material Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, China

    Xiao-Hu Bing, Wen-Yu Ma, Ming-Hui Wu, Peng Gao, Xiao Zhou, Hai-Bin Luo, Long Wang & Wen-Ge Zheng

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Wen-Yu Ma, Long Wang & Wen-Ge Zheng

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  1. Xiao-Hu Bing
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  2. Wen-Yu Ma
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  3. Ming-Hui Wu
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Correspondence to Long Wang or Wen-Ge Zheng.

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Bing, XH., Ma, WY., Wu, MH. et al. Lightweight, Strong and High Heat-Resistant Poly(lactide acid) Foams via Microcellular Injection Molding with Self-Assembly Nucleating Agent. Chin J Polym Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-024-3088-6

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