The Preparation of PLA/PBAT/PPC Ternary Blends and The Effect of Epoxidized Soybean Oil on the Physical and Mechanical properties of PLA/PBAT/PPC blends with the Reactive Compatibilization

Abstract

Abstract Poly (lactic acid) (PLA)/poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT)/poly (propylene carbonate) (PPC) multi-phase blends were prepared by melt processing technique under the presence of compatibilizer with various composition. In our previous study, 70/30 wt% composition ratio of PLA/PBAT was found be optimized ratio to achieve the balanced properties of PLA/PBAT blends. The effect of compatibilizer on microstructure of PLA/PBAT/PPC multi-phase blends with/without epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) was investigated, and the structure-properties relationship were assessed. ​​The functional groups of PPC was found to effective to improve an interaction with carboxyl/hydroxyl group of PLA/PBAT binary blends to enhance the mechanical and physical properties on multi-phase blend system. The presence of PPC in PLA/PBAT blend affected the reduction of voids on the interface phase resulting in enhancing the oxygen barrier properties. With addition of ESO, the compatibility of ternary blend was found to be enhanced since the epoxy group of ESO reacted with the carboxyl/hydroxyl group of PLA, PBAT, and PPC, and under the condition with critical content of 4 phr of ESO, the elongation behavior dramatically increased as compared to that of blends without ESO while affecting reduction of oxygen barrier properties. The effect of ESO as a compatibilizer was clearly observed from the overall performances of ternary blends, and the potential feasibility of the PLA/PBAT/PPC ternary blends as packaging materials was confirmed at this study.