Thermal, Morphological, Mechanical and Aging Properties of Polylactide Blends with Poly(ether urethane) Based on Chain-extension Reaction of Poly(ethylene glycol) Using Diisocyanate

Poly（ether urethane）s （PEU）, including PEUI 15 and PEUH15, were prepared through chain-extension reaction of poly（ethylene glycol） （PEG-1500） using diisocyanate as a chain extender, including isophorone diisocyanate （IPDI） and hexamethylene diisocyanate （HDI）. These PEUs were used to toughen polylactide （PLA） by physical and reactive blending. Thermal, morphological, mechanical and aging properties of the blends were investigated in detail. These PEUs were partially compatible with PLA. The elongation at break of the reactive blends in the presence of triphenyl phosphate （TPP） for PLA with PEUH15 or PEUI15 was much higher than that of the physical blends. The aging test was carried out at -20 ~C for 50 h in order to accelerate the crystallization of PEUs. The PEUs in the PLA/PEU blends produced crystallization and formed new phase separation with PLA, resulting in the declined toughness of blends. Fortunately, under the aging condition, although PEUH15 in blends could also form crystallization, the reactive blend of PLA/PEUH15/TPP（80/20/2） bad higher toughness than the other blends. The elongation at break of PLA/PEUH 15/TPP（80/20/2） dropped to 287% for the aging blend from 350% for the original blend. The tensile strength and modulus of PLA/PEUH15/TPP blend did not change obviously because of the crystallization of PEUH 15.

Influence of Chain Architectures on Crystallization Behaviors of PLLA Block in PEG/PLLA Block Copolymers

The effect of the architecture of poly(ethylene glycol)/poly(L-lactide)(PEG/PLLA) block copolymers on the non-isothermal crystallization behaviors of PLLA blocks was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) and wide angle X-ray diffraction(WAXD). 1-Arm MPEG-b-PLLA and 4-arm PEG-b-PLLA(4PEG-b-PLLA) were synthesized by the ring-opening polymerization of Llactide in the presence of poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether(MPEG) and 4-arm poly(ethylene glycol)(4PEG). 4-Arm PLLA-b-MPEG(4PLLA-b-PEG) was synthesized by coupling 4-arm PLLA and MPEG. The WAXD results indicated that the crystalline structure of PLLA blocks did not alter due to the different chain architectures. The average values of Avrami index(ˉn) were all above 4, which indicated that the nucleation mechanism of PLLA blocks was heterogeneous nucleation, regardless of the architectures. The overall crystallization rates were decreased markedly as following: MPEG-b-PLLA > 4PEG-b-PLLA > 4PLLA-b-PEG, ascribed to the different confinement by PEG blocks and to the steric hindrance of chain architectures. Therefore, the crystallization of PLLA blocks became more difficult and the crystallization activation energy of the PLLA blocks increased due to the confinement of chain architectures.

Effect of Exogenous Carboxyl and Hydroxyl Groups on Pyrolysis Reaction of High Molecular Weight Poly(L-Lactide)under the Catalysis of Tin

The effect of exogenous hydroxyl,carboxyl groups and/or Sn^(2+) on pyrolysis reactions of poly(L-lactide)(PLLA)was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis(TGA).The activation energy(fa)of pyrolysis reactions was estimated by the Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose method.The kinetic models were also explored by the Malek method,and the random degradation behavior was determined by comparing the plots of ln{-ln[1-(1-w)05]}versus 1/7for experimental data from TGA with model reactions.The pyrolysis reaction rate of PLLA was affected slightly by exogenous hydroxyl and carboxyl groups at lower levels of Sn with 65-70 mg·kg^(-1)but increased appreciably in the presence of extraneous Sn^(2+),-COOH/Sn^(2+),or-OH/Sn^(2+).The Ea values for the pyrolysis reactions of the PLLAs that provided lactide were different under the catalysis of Sn2+in different chemical environments because Sn^(2+) can form the new Sn-carboxylate and Sn-alkoxide with exogenous carboxyl and hydroxyl groups,which were different in steric hindrance for the formation of activated complex between Sn^(2+) and PLLA.Under the catalysis of Sn^(2+),a lactide molecule can be directly eliminated selectively at a random position of PLLA molecular chains,and the molecular chain of PLLA cannot change two PLLA fragments at the elimination site of lactide.However,it was regenerated into a new PLLA molecule with the molecular weight reduced by 144 g·mol^(-1).

Effects of Molecular Weight on the Crystallization and Melting Behaviors of Poly(L-lactide)

In this study, a series of monodispersed poly（L-lactide）（PLLA） were synthesized by the ring-opening polymerization with Schiff base aluminum catalyst, and the effects of the number-average molecular weight（Mn） on the crystallization and melting behaviors of PLLA were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry（DSC） and wide-angle X-ray diffraction（WAXD）. The total crystallization rate of PLLA was Mn-dependent, which reached the maximum value for PLLA with Mn of 18.6 kg/mol. In addition, when Mn of PLLA was 18.6 kg/mol, the melting enthalpy（ΔHm） showed a maximum value（87.1 J/g）, which was the highest reported value till now. The critical temperature for change of crystal formation from ？-form to ？-form crystals increased in the isothermal crystallization process with Mn increasing. In the reheating procedure, high-Mn PLLA demonstrated a small exothermal peak prior to the dominant melting peak, corresponding to crystal transition from ？- to ？-form, but low-Mn PLLA didn＇t show the peak of crystal transition. These different crystallization and melting behaviors were attributed to the different chain mobility of PLLA with different Mn.