Investigation on Structure and Thermomechanical Processing of Biobased Polymer Blends

• Published in: Journal of polymers and the environment Vol. 25; no. 3; pp. 750 - 758
• Main Authors: Cicala, Gianluca, Latteri, Alberta, Saccullo, Giuseppe, Recca, Giuseppe, Sciortino, Luca, Lebioda, Sascha, Saake, Bodo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Degradation; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Fractionation; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Lignin; Materials Science; Modulus of elasticity; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Original Paper; Polylactic acid; Polymer blends; Polymer Sciences; Polymers; Size exclusion chromatography; Softwoods; Stability analysis; Tensile properties; Tensile strength; Thermodynamic properties; Thermomechanical treatment; Ultimate tensile strength; Degradation; Mechanical properties; Lignin; Polylactide
• ISSN: 1566-2543; 1572-8919; 1572-8900
• DOI: 10.1007/s10924-016-0857-5

The structure and composition of a biobased polymer blend with wood like appearance was studied. The effects of processing time for mixing at 190 °C was investigated. The structure of the blend was unveiled combining fractionation techniques with size exclusion chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis. The material was found to be a blend of polylactide (PLA) polymer with 15.4 wt% ground softwood and 5 wt% soda lignin. The findings about composition supported the explanation of the thermal behavior and the processing stability analysis. The blend showed tensile properties degradation after mixing at 190 °C for 25 min. The ultimate tensile strength dropped from 29.75 to 4.85 MPa while the tensile modulus dropped from 5.3 to 4.2 GPa. The degradation behavior was explained in terms of the PLA degradation enhanced by the presence of the natural constituents in the blend.