Bio-sourced polymers, polylactide (PLA) and starch, have been melt-blended by lab-scale co-extruder with tung oil anhydride (TOA) as the plasticizer. The ready reaction between the maleic anhydride on TOA and the hydroxyl on starch led TOA molecules to accumulate on starch and increased the compatibility of PLA/starch blends, which was confirmed by FT-IR analyses and SEM. The TOA could change the mechanical properties and physical behaviors of PLA/starch blends. DSC and DMA analysis show that the TOA layer on starch has an effect on the thermal behavior of PLA in the ternary blend. The enrichment of TOA on starch improves the toughness and impact strength of the PLA/starch blends. The adding amount of TOA in PLA/starch blends primarily determined the compatibility and mechanical properties of the resulted ternary blends. The tensile and impact fracture modes of the PLA/starch blend with or without TOA has also been investigated by SEM analysis.
Ying Zhou,Can Chen,Lan Xie,Xiaolang Chen,Guangqiang Xiao,Shuhao Qin,Jianbing Guo,Yong He
In this work, novel plasticizing biodegradable poly (lactic acid) (PLA) composites were prepared by melt blending of jute and tung oil anhydride (TOA), and the physical and mechanical properties of PLA/jute/TOA composites were tested and characterized. The impact strength of PLA/jute/TOA composites significantly increases with increasing the content of TOA. The SEM images of fracture surface of PLA/jute/TOA composites become rough after the incorporation of TOA. In addition, TOA changes the crystallization temperature and decomposition process of PLA/jute/TOA composites. With increasing the amount of TOA, the value of storage modulus (E′) of PLA/jute/TOA composites gradually increases. The complex viscosity (η*) values for all samples reduce obviously with increasing the frequency, which means that the pure PLA and PLA/jute/TOA composites is typical pseudoplastic fluid. This is attributed to the formation of crosslinking, which restricts the deformation of the composites.
Natural fibers reinforced composites (NFCs) have renewable and low cost advantages. In this paper, the tung oil anhydride (TOA) modified polypropylene (PP)/hemp fiber composites have been prepared by a melt-blended process. The reaction between the tung oil anhydride and the as-treated hemp fiber make the TOA molecules to accumulate on the surface of hemp fiber and to form a TOA layer on the surface of hemp fibers, which is confirmed by the FT-IR and SEM analyses. The TOA layer improves the compatibility between PP matrix and hemp fibers. The elongation at break (EB) and impact strength of the PP/hemp fiber/TOA composites are twice more than the PP/hemp fiber composites. Thermal analysis shows the T oneset , and T max of the composites increasing that reflects the thermal stability of the composites improved. The crystalline property reveals that the T c moves to high temperature with the TOA or hemp fiber added in the blends. The DMA and rheology properties analysis indicate that the TOA layer improved molecular mobility of the composites and show a shear thinning effect.