Blending polylactic acid with polyhydroxybutyrate: The effect on thermal, mechanical, and biodegradation properties

By Min Zhang, N. Thomas. 2011

340 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Blends of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) at a number of different PLA/PHB weight ratios (100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75, 0/100) have been prepared by melt compounding. The morphology, thermal properties, mechanical properties, and biodegradation behavior of these blends have been investigated. The results indicate that PLA/PHB blends are immiscible but exhibit molecular interaction. PHB is highly crystallizable, and it enhances the recrystallization of PLA and consequently increases the heat distortion temperature. Adding PLA to PHB improves the mechanical properties of PHB. In fact, blending with PHB is also a viable approach to improve the mechanical properties of PLA because the PLA/PHB 75/25 blend exhibits significantly improved tensile properties compared with pure PLA. This is due to the finely dispersed PHB crystals acting as a filler and nucleating agent in PLA. The biodegradability, studied by weight change measurement at room temperature, improved with increasing PHB content. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Adv Polym Techn 30: 67–79, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/adv.20235

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Biomaterials, Process Chemistry and Technology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3604baf17142fcfd518999e771b5ab94778a406a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Automotive Engineering

1. M. Arrieta
2. Juan Carlos Cortés López
3. Yixin Deng
4. N. Thomas
5. Changyi Yu
6. Peangpatu Wongwiwattana

In Biomaterials

1. J. Kenny
2. E. Fortunati
3. M. Arrieta
4. Juan Carlos Cortés López
5. N. Burgos
6. F. Dominici
7. A. Jiménez
8. A. Hernández

In Process Chemistry and Technology

1. N. Burgos
2. J. Kenny
3. M. Arrieta
4. Juan Carlos Cortés López
5. A. Jiménez
6. Yixin Deng
7. N. Thomas
8. Changyi Yu

Citations in the corpus

• Optimising Ductility of Poly(Lactic Acid)/Poly(Butylene Adipate-co-Terephthalate) Blends Through Co-continuous Phase Morphology (2018, background): “In the case of melt blending of two bio-degradable polyesters, there would be expected to be attractions between polar groups leading to stronger interactions and hence some miscibility [7, 11].”
• Ternary PLA–PHB–Limonene blends intended for biodegradable food packaging applications (2014, background): “This behavior is due to PHB can enhance the recrystallization of PLA [18] owing to its ability to act as a nucleating agent [17].”
• Disintegrability under composting conditions of plasticized PLA-PHB blends (2014, background): “Similarly, Zhang and Thomas (2011) studied PLA/PHB blends in 57 different proportions (100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75 and 0/100, w/w) prepared by melt blending 58 followed by compression moulding [9].”
• Processing and characterization of plasticized PLA/PHB blends for biodegradable multiphase systems (2015, background): “was observed, which corresponds to the characteristic peak of PLA [12, 20] and indicates the development of a certain crystallinity degree after processing.”