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Molecular simulation and experimental studies of the miscibility of polylactic acid/polyethylene glycol blends

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Abstract

Computer simulation and experiments were performed to investigate the miscibility of PLA/PEG blends with different PEG concentrations. Flory-Huggins interaction (χ) parameter used to predict the miscibility for the blends was estimated by molecular dynamic simulation of fully atomistic model. The calculated χ parameter and radial distribution function suggest that the PLA and PEG blends are likely miscible at low PEG concentrations (10–30 wt%), but they become apparently immiscible at higher PEG content (>50 wt%). This result is consistent with density distribution of PLA and PEG beads calculated from dissipative particle dynamics simulation of coarse-grained model. To support the computational results, experiments based on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and rheometry were also performed. The DSC thermograms of 90:10, 80:20, and 70:30 (wt/wt) of PLA/PEG blends showed a single glass transition and PLA melting peak, indicating PLA/PEG is miscible over this composition. In rheometry, frequency (ω) dependence of storage moduli (G′) at low frequencies for 75:25 and 70:30 blends indicate that these samples are near the phase separation point.

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Acknowledgments

The financial support for this work by the Commission on Higher Education, Ministry of Education (Thailand) for supporting the grant fund under the program Strategic Scholarships for Frontier Research Network for the Ph.D. Program is gratefully acknowledged. All molecular simulation works were done at Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), Thailand, and most of the experimental part was performed at Kyushu University, Japan. A.T. and V.V. would like to thank National Nanotechnology Center, Thailand, for their permission to use Material Studio software. V.V. thanks the support of the Advanced Organic Materials Research Group, SUT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Computational and Applied Polymer Science, School of Chemistry, Institute of Science, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, 30000, Thailand

    Adisak Takhulee & Visit Vao-soongnern

  2. Evaluation Office of Materials Properties, Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka, 816-8580, Japan

    Yoshiaki Takahashi

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  1. Adisak Takhulee
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  2. Yoshiaki Takahashi
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Correspondence to Visit Vao-soongnern.

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Takhulee, A., Takahashi, Y. & Vao-soongnern, V. Molecular simulation and experimental studies of the miscibility of polylactic acid/polyethylene glycol blends. J Polym Res 24, 8 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-016-1174-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-016-1174-3

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