Influence of different β-nucleation agents on poly(l-lactic acid): structure, morphology, and dynamic mechanical behavior

Abstract

The effects of rare earth based β-nucleating agent (WBG-II) and aryl amide derivative nucleating agent (TMB-5000) on the crystal structure, morphology, and dynamic mechanical behavior of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) were systematically investigated. The presence of β-form crystal in PLLA composites has been confirmed through various techniques including wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. The crystallization behaviors of WBG-II and TMB-5000 nucleated PLLA were studied via WAXD and polarized optical microscope (POM) techniques. The experimental results convincingly reveal that WBG-II and TMB-5000 not only accelerate the crystallization rate, but also alter the packing structure of PLLA chains in the crystals. Furthermore, a significant difference in crystal dimensions and nucleation density was observed clearly. Moreover, the effect of different β-nucleating agents on the storage modulus (E′) and dynamic loss (tan δ) of pure PLLA, PLLA/TMB-5000_0.25 and PLLA/WBG-II_0.25 were investigated by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA).