The Effect of the Process on Mechanical Properties of Polylactic Acid-Date Palm Leaf Fibers Composite Films Produced By Extrusion Blowing

Biocomposite films prepared with melt compounding and film blowing have become a new trend in plastic research to deliver more eco-friendly packages.Polylactic acid(PLA)was melt compounded with minimally processed date palm leaf fiber(DPLF)and converted into films by blown film extrusion.The compounding was done in order to enhance the film mechanical properties in one hand,and to decrease the film production cost in the other hand.In this present study,a reference PLA film and films with 1%,2%,and 5%of DPLF(weight%)were produced with different process parameters.The spatial variations in films thickness and lay flat width indicate that the addition of DPLF up to 2%enhances the bubble stability for the tested process parameters.However,the composite with 5%DPLF shows nearly the same processability window as the neat PLA.The structural and mechanical characterizations of films suggest a reinforcing effect of the PLA matrix up to 2%of fiber(with an optimum at 1%).Larger DPLF loading leads to depressed and more anisotropic mechanical properties,related to an increased density of defects at the fiber-PLA fragile interface and to a DPLF-induced enhanced PLA thermal degradation and amorphous phase orientation.

The Influence of Peroxide on Bubble Stability and Rheological Properties of Biobased Poly(lactic acid)/Natural Rubber Blown Films

This study investigated the effects of natural rubber(NR)and an organic peroxide on the rheological properties,mechanical properties,morphology,and bubble stability during film blowing of poly(lactic acid)(PLA).The NR and peroxide contents were varied from 0 wt%to 25 wt%and 0 wt%to 0.5 wt%,respectively.The results confirmed that the presence of well-dispersed NR could significantly improve the toughness,elongation at break,and processability of PLA films,where the optimal amount of NR was 15 wt%.For the reactive blending with peroxide,a suitable peroxide content for good film toughness and clarity was 0.03 wt%,while the higher content of 0.1 wt%could provide slightly higher processability.These contents are considered much lower than that in the PLA system(without NR),which required up to 0.5 wt%peroxide.The rheological studies indicated that the melt strength,the storage modulus(G’)and complex viscosity(η*)at low frequency could be correlated with good film blowing processability of the PLA/NR films at low gel contents.These parameters failed to correlate in the films having high gel contents as the deformation rate experienced by each test was different leading to the different levels of response to the type and amount of gels.