Interfacial Properties, Viscoelasticity, and Thermal Behaviors of Poly(butylene succinate)/Polylactide Blend

Abstract

Biodegradable poly(butylene succinate)/polylactide (PBS/PLA) blends with various blending ratios were prepared by melt mixing for morphological and rheological studies. Dynamic rheological measurements were performed on the blend systems and the viscoelastic responses were analyzed with several emulsion models. The results show that the PBS/PLA is an immiscible blend system with very narrow cocontinuous region and high percolation threshold. The phase inversion point could be precisely predicted by the small-amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) response. The Palierne model gave a better description of the viscoelastic response of PBS/PLA blends than that of the Gramespacher and Meissner (G-M) model. In addition, the interfacial tension between the two polymers was measured by several techniques, such as surface property characterizations, deformed drop retraction, and rheological approaches. The differences observed by these various methodologies were then further explored. Moreover, the melting and crystallization behaviors of the blends were also studied in order to reach a deeper insight into the relations between the phase behavior and the macroscopic thermal properties of the PBS/PLA blends.