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Crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of poly(lactic acid)/poly(ethylene oxide) blends nucleated by a self-assembly nucleator

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Abstract

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) blends nucleated by a self-assembly nucleating agent, N,N′,N″-tricyclohexyl-1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylamide (BTCA), were prepared by melt blending. The crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of the materials were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, polarized optical microscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, dynamic mechanical analyzer and tensile testing. It was found that PEO had a synergistic effect together with BTCA on promoting PLA crystallization, besides its toughening effect on the material. Moreover, BTCA revealed prominent reinforcement effect on both neat PLA and PLA/PEO blends in the glass transition region and above, indicating the improvement on the heat resistance of the materials.

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51573170, U1704162, and 11432003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Research Center for Advanced Polymer Processing Technology, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials Processing and Mold (Ministry of Education), Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450002, China

    Weili Kong, Aolin Ye, Ruixue Ma, Jiaomin Gou, Yaming Wang, Chuntai Liu & Changyu Shen

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute, Kaifeng, 475000, China

    Beibei Tong

  3. State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Changyu Shen

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  1. Weili Kong
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  2. Beibei Tong
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  3. Aolin Ye
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  4. Ruixue Ma
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  5. Jiaomin Gou
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  6. Yaming Wang
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Correspondence to Yaming Wang.

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Kong, W., Tong, B., Ye, A. et al. Crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of poly(lactic acid)/poly(ethylene oxide) blends nucleated by a self-assembly nucleator. J Therm Anal Calorim 135, 3107–3114 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7528-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7528-9

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