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Enhancement of the properties of biodegradable poly(L-lactide)/poly(butylene carbonate) blends by introducing stereocomplex polylactide crystals

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Abstract

A low-temperature melt blending method was adopted to prepare ternary blends of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA), poly(butylene carbonate) (PBC), and poly(D-lactide) (PDLA), aiming to obtain fully biodegradable blends with well-balanced properties. The in situ formation of stereocomplex polylactide (SC-PLA) crystals was confirmed by torque changes, differential scanning calorimetry results, and wide-angle X-ray diffraction measurements. At a PDLA concentration of 5 mass%, SC-PLA crystals formed a percolating network structure, and the rheological behavior of the blend melts transformed from liquid-like to solid-like. The viscosity ratio between PLLA and PBC melts increased due to the presence of SC-PLA crystals, resulting in an enlargement of the PBC domain size. SC-PLA crystals exhibited an excellent nucleation effect, significantly accelerating the crystallization rate of PLLA. Compared to neat PLLA with elongation at break of 5.2%, PLLA/PBC/PDLA ternary blends containing 2 mass% PDLA with elongation at break of 247.2% presented excellent toughness. This work provided a facile method to prepare PLLA-based material with outstanding crystallization ability and tailored rheological behavior as well as mechanical properties, which had the potential to replace conventional plastic products.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Science and Technology Department of Jilin Province (20230402067GH).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, 130012, China

    Hongda Cheng & Lijuan Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China

    Mengdie Yu, Ye Zhang, Hechang Shi, Yancun Yu & Changyu Han

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Contributions

Hongda Cheng contributed to conceptualization, methodology, data curation, writing—original draft, visualization, resources, methodology, and software. Mengdie Yu contributed to data curation, software, formal analysis, and conceptualization. Ye Zhang and Yanchun Yu contributed to software, data curation, and formal analysis. Hechang Shi contributed to data curation and software. Lijuan Wang contributed to conceptualization, resources, writing—reviewing and editing, investigation, and funding acquisition. Changyu Han contributed to conceptualization, resources, writing—reviewing and editing, investigation, and supervision. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Cheng, H., Yu, M., Zhang, Y. et al. Enhancement of the properties of biodegradable poly(L-lactide)/poly(butylene carbonate) blends by introducing stereocomplex polylactide crystals. J Therm Anal Calorim (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-024-13245-x

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