1. Plasticization mechanism of biobased plasticizers comprising polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether-butyl citrate with both long and short chains on poly(lactic acid).
- Author
-
Sun S, Weng Y, Han Y, and Zhang C
- Subjects
- Tensile Strength, Citrates chemistry, Epoxy Compounds chemistry, Citric Acid chemistry, Plasticizers chemistry, Polyesters chemistry, Polyethylene Glycols chemistry
- Abstract
Polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable polymer with low flexibility, is commonly plasticized with small molecules like tributyl citrate (TBC) for film production. However, these plasticizers, which lack chemical bonds or strong intermolecular interactions with the matrix, tend to migrate to the film surface over time. Their inclusion often compromises material strength for flexibility, increasing elongation at break but reducing tensile strength. In this research, by combining citric acid with n-butanol (B) and poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether (E), we synthesized three plasticizers, namely TE
3 , TE2 B1 , and TE1 B2 , to enhance the flexibility of PLA. TE2 B1 and TE1 B2 are equipped with butyl ester groups that offer effective plasticizing effects. Additionally, the incorporation of long-chain alkyl featuring epoxy groups can boost the interaction with PLA. The results showed that the epoxy groups of the long-chain alkyl plasticizers can improve the elongation at break without compromising tensile strength significantly. The migration of plasticizer from PLA matrix can be reduced by strong interactions like chemical bonds, entanglements, and hydrogen bonding with PLA. TE1 B2 demonstrated the best plasticizing effect. Adding 15 portions of TE1B2 and TBC separately increased PLA's elongation at break to 304 % and 242 %, with tensile strengths of 36.1 MPa and 22.3 MPa, respectively., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF