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Effect of molecular weight on the properties and structure of biodegradable poly-lactic acid melt-blown nonwovens

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Abstract

Biodegradable poly-lactic acid (PLA) with varying molecular weights of melt-blown nonwovens was successfully prepared through the method of melt spinning. The phase morphology, rheological behavior, hydrophobicity, and crystalline characteristics of the melt-blown nonwovens have been investigated. The thermal and crystallization behavior revealed that PLA samples with low molecular weights, resulted in a higher degree of crystallinity, meanwhile, the polarized optical microscopy (POM) analysis demonstrates that the large spherical crystal size was obtained with low molecular weights within the same crystallization time. For another, the storage modulus (G′), loss modulus (G′′), and complex viscosity |η*| were increased with the increase in molecular weight from rheological measurement. The morphologies of fiber were observed by SEM, the average diameter increased from 11.86 to 21.07 μm. Furthermore, the water contact angle (WCA) of nonwoven decreased from 128.9° to 114.9° due to an increase in viscosity led to an increase in the distribution of fiber diameters.

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Data availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the fund of the Chinese Science Academy (Changchun Branch) (No. 2022SYHZ0033, 2023SYHZ0035), Science and Technology Bureau of Jilin Province of China (No. 20220203019SF), and Development and Reform Commission of Jilin Province of China (No. 2022C039-3).

Funding

Science and Technology Bureau of Jilin Province of China, No. 20220203019SF, Junjia Bian, Development and Reform Commission of Jilin Province of China, No. 2022C039-3, Junjia Bian, Chinese Science Academy (Changchun Branch), No. 2022SYHZ0033, Junjia Bian, No.2023SYHZ0035, Hongwei Pan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Material and Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Synthetic Resin and Special Fiber, Ministry of Education, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, 130012, China

    Jinshuo Yu, Hanlin Tian, Zepeng Wang & Zhiyong Tan

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

    Jinshuo Yu, Hanlin Tian, Zepeng Wang, Hongwei Pan, Yan Zhao, Huiliang Zhang & Junjia Bian

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  1. Jinshuo Yu
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Yu, J., Tian, H., Wang, Z. et al. Effect of molecular weight on the properties and structure of biodegradable poly-lactic acid melt-blown nonwovens. J Polym Res 31, 77 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-024-03927-3

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