Thermal, crystallization, and mechanical properties of polylactic acid (PLA)/poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) blends

A environment-friendly polymer blends were prepared by the basis of bio-sourced polylactide (PLA) and aliphatic poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) via melt compounding process. 1,4-butanediol and succinic acid was used together with tetrabutyltitanate as catalyst to synthesize PBS via esterified and polycondensation. The chemical structure of PBS was studied by H-1 NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy. The effects PBS content on thermal behavior, mechanical properties, phase morphology, and thermal stability of PLA/PBS blends were systematically investigated. DSC and DMA results showed that glass transition temperature (T-g) and cool crystallizaiton temperature (T-cc) of PLA was influenced by PBS. The different phase morphologies of the PLA/PBS blends formed after addition of PBS into PLA. The various phase morphologies from that blend influenced the rheological behavior and further influenced the mechanical properties in PLA/PBS blends, the well dispersed PBS increased the elongation at break of 8.1 +/- 0.1 kj/m(2) with around 80.0% over than neat the PLA. Finally, the PLA/PBS blends have excellent mechanical and thermal properties by analyzing the toughening mechanism and crystallization morphology.