Processing a Supertoughened Polylactide Ternary Blend with High Heat Deflection Temperature by Melt Blending with a High Screw Rotation Speed

Abstract

A supertoughened ternary polylactide (PLA) blend with high heat deflection temperature was reported in this study. The ternary blend was composed of two major biocompatible and biodegradable polymers, namely, PLA and polyamide-11 (PA11), and one minor reactive elastomer, ethylene–acrylic ester–glycidyl methacrylate terpolymer (EGMA), as a toughener. Shear processing with a very high rotation speed was utilized to prepare the blend by melt blending. At the high screw rotation speed of 1000 rpm of the twin-screw extruder, the PLA/PA11/EGMA 40/40/20 ternary blend displayed simultaneous increases in tensile toughness (75.7 MJ/m3) and notched Izod impact strength (88.3 kJ/m2), nearly 33 times greater than those of PLA/PA11 50/50 binary blend. Moreover, a much higher heat deflection temperature was obtained for this supertoughened ternary blend as compared with neat PLA and PLA/EGMA blend without PA11, providing an economical and effective approach to make PLA-related materials with supertoughness and high heat deflection temperature.