Thermal and mechanical properties of poly(L-lactic acid) nucleated with N,N’-bis(phenyl) 1,4-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid dihydrazide

Abstract

The modified poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) with different contents (0.5−3 wt %) of N,N’-bis(phenyl) 1,4-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid dihydrazide (NAPH) were prepared to evaluate effects of NAPH on melt-crystallization behavior (DSC), thermal degradation (TGA) and mechanical properties of PLLA. The melt-crystallization results demonstrated that NAPH as a heterogeneous organic nucleating agent enhanced crystallization ability of PLLA in cooling, and PLLA/1%NAPH had the best crystallization ability because of the highest onset crystallization temperature and the sharpest melt-crystallization peak. However, melt-crystallization behavior also depended on the cooling rate and final melting temperature, overall, a relative slow cooling rate and low final melting temperature were beneficial for crystallization of PLLA. The cold-crystallization results indicated that NAPH had an inhibition for cold-crystallization process of PLLA, and the cold-crystallization peak shifted towards lower temperature and became wider with an increase of NAPH concentration. The different melting behaviors ofPLLA/NAPH after melt-crystallization and isothermal-crystallization efficiently reflected the accelerating role of NAPH for PLLA crystallization; the double melting peaks formed in heating were thought to result from melting-recrystallization, as well as that a higher crystallization temperature could cause melting peak to appear in higher temperature regions and possess larger melting enthalpy. A comparative analysis on thermal degradation in air illustrated that the addition of NAPH accelerated decomposition of PLLA, but a decrease of onset decomposition temperature was inhibited by the probable interaction of PLLA with NAPH. Moreover, the tensile test showed that NAPH decreased tensile modulus and elongation at break of PLLA, whereas PLLA with low concentration of NAPH had higher tensile strength than pure PLLA.