Mechanical recycling simulation of polylactide using a chain extender

This work studied the commercial chain extender effectiveness on the mechanical recycling simulation of a pristine PLA using a single‐screw extruder. We processed the material by two extrusion cycles to simulate a recycling process. In the second extrusion, part of the material was processed with ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAdvances in polymer technology Vol. 37; no. 6; pp. 2053 - 2060
Main Authors Cosate de Andrade, Marina Fernandes, Fonseca, Gustavo, Morales, Ana Rita, Mei, Lucia Helena Innocentini
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Hindawi Limited 01.10.2018
Subjects
biopolymers
Crystal structure
Crystallinity
Extrusion
Mechanical properties
Melt flow index
Molecular weight
Recycling
Simulation
Thermal degradation
thermal properties
Thermal stability
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Summary:This work studied the commercial chain extender effectiveness on the mechanical recycling simulation of a pristine PLA using a single‐screw extruder. We processed the material by two extrusion cycles to simulate a recycling process. In the second extrusion, part of the material was processed with chain extender and we evaluated its molecular weight, thermal degradation, melt flow index (MFI), thermal transitions, and mechanical properties. The molecular weight for the extruded neat PLA decreased and the MFI and crystallinity degree increased while the mechanical properties worsened. The onset thermal degradation occurred at lower temperature for the processed material. With the introduction of the chain extender, there was a recovery of properties with the increase in the polymer molecular weight, decrease in the MFI and crystallinity degree, and an improvement in both thermal stability and mechanical properties in relation to recycled PLA without this component.
ISSN:0730-6679
1098-2329
DOI:10.1002/adv.21863