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Tensile Properties of Polylactide/Poly(ethylene glycol) Blends

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Abstract

The blends of polylactide (PLA) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with different contents (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt%) and molecular weights (\( \overline{M}_{w} \) 6000, 10,000 and 20,000, called respectively as PEG 6000, PEG 10,000, and PEG 20,000) were prepared by means of melt blending method. The effects of tensile speed, content and molecular weight of the PEG on the tensile properties of the PLA/PEG blends were investigated using a universal testing machine at 24 °C. With increasing tensile speed, the tensile modulus, strength and stress at break of the PLA/PEG blends marginally increased, while the tensile modulus and stress at break declined non-linearly, and the tensile strength dropped nearly linearly with increasing PEG 10,000 content. When the PEG 10,000 content was 5–15 wt%, the tensile strain at break of the PLA/PEG 10,000 blend markedly increased, and then decreased as the PEG 10,000 content exceeded 15 wt%. With increasing the molecular weight of PEG, tensile modulus and strength increased, whereas the tensile strain at break decreased. This showed that the application of right amount of lower molecular weight PEG was more conducive to improving the tensile toughness of the PLA/PEG blends, which was attributed to its better miscibility with PLA and increased mobility of PLA molecular chains.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the financial support from the National Science Fund for U1333126 and Fund Research Grant for Science and Technology in Guangzhou, China (2014J4100038).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Division of Green Function Materials and Equipment, School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, People’s Republic of China

    Feng-Jiao Li, Ji-Zhao Liang, Shui-Dong Zhang & Bo Zhu

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  1. Feng-Jiao Li
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  2. Ji-Zhao Liang
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  3. Shui-Dong Zhang
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Correspondence to Ji-Zhao Liang.

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Li, FJ., Liang, JZ., Zhang, SD. et al. Tensile Properties of Polylactide/Poly(ethylene glycol) Blends. J Polym Environ 23, 407–415 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-015-0718-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-015-0718-7

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