Synchronous Toughening, Strengthening, and Ultraviolet Resistance of Immiscible Polylactic Acid/polypropylene Carbonate Blends Compatibilized by a Low Threshold of Reactive Janus Nanosheets

IF 5.1 1区化学 Q1 POLYMER SCIENCE Macromolecules Pub Date : 2024-12-02 DOI:10.1021/acs.macromol.4c01950

Jieyu Guan, Ning Ding, Pengwu Xu, Weijun Yang, Deyu Niu, Xu Zhang, Tianxi Liu, Piming Ma

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Abstract

Poor toughness limits the use of biobased and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA). The conventional method of blending with flexible polymers toughens PLA with a significant loss of strength and incompatibility. In this work, carbon dioxide-based biodegradable polypropylene carbonate (PPC) was used as the flexibilizer, and PPC-TiO₂-epoxy Janus nanosheets (JNs) synthesized by grafting PPC-diols and epoxy groups onto each side of titanium dioxide nanosheets respectively were used as compatibilizers. PLA/PPC/JNs blends were then prepared by melt processing. The in situ reaction between the epoxy groups on one side of the JNs and the carboxylic acid groups on the PLA occurs, forming a solid covalent bond. The grafted PPC chains on the other side of the JNs were tightly entangled with those of the PPC flexibilizer. Moreover, due to the Pickering effect of JNs, they can stably anchor at the interface, which reduces the interfacial tension and significantly enhances compatibility. Compared with PLA/PPC, the addition of as low as even 0.3 wt % JNs reduced the PPC domain size from 3.25 to 0.42 μm, and consequently, the elongation at break increased by 250%. Moreover, the introduction of JNs significantly improved the UV shielding in both UV-A and UV–B regions and the UV aging resistance of the blends without reducing the transparency that much. Herein, this work provides a new method for improving the compatibility of PLA-based blends and preparing high-performance PLA materials.

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来源期刊

Macromolecules 工程技术-高分子科学

CiteScore

9.30

自引率

16.40%

发文量

942

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： Macromolecules publishes original, fundamental, and impactful research on all aspects of polymer science. Topics of interest include synthesis (e.g., controlled polymerizations, polymerization catalysis, post polymerization modification, new monomer structures and polymer architectures, and polymerization mechanisms/kinetics analysis); phase behavior, thermodynamics, dynamic, and ordering/disordering phenomena (e.g., self-assembly, gelation, crystallization, solution/melt/solid-state characteristics); structure and properties (e.g., mechanical and rheological properties, surface/interfacial characteristics, electronic and transport properties); new state of the art characterization (e.g., spectroscopy, scattering, microscopy, rheology), simulation (e.g., Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, multi-scale/coarse-grained modeling), and theoretical methods. Renewable/sustainable polymers, polymer networks, responsive polymers, electro-, magneto- and opto-active macromolecules, inorganic polymers, charge-transporting polymers (ion-containing, semiconducting, and conducting), nanostructured polymers, and polymer composites are also of interest. Typical papers published in Macromolecules showcase important and innovative concepts, experimental methods/observations, and theoretical/computational approaches that demonstrate a fundamental advance in the understanding of polymers.