One-step compatibilization of poly(lactic acid) and tannin via reactive extrusion
Jingjing Liao, Nicolas Brosse, Sandrine Hoppe, Guanben Du, Xiaojian Zhou, A. Pizzi
Abstract
The compatibility issue between poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and tannin is a big challenge for preparing PLA/tannin biocomposites with enhanced properties. In this work, composites with enhanced properties have been accomplished using an efficient one-step reactive extrusion method with the help of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (p-MDI) or 3-aminopropytriethoxysilane (APS). The extent of compatibility achieved via the one-step was evaluated by tensile, morphological, rheological, and thermal properties. The obtained results indicated that the adhesion promoters, especially p-MDI, contributed efficiently to an improved tensile behavior of the resulting composites with a tough tensile-fracture surface compared with incompatibilized PLA/tannin composite. Moreover, these composites displayed a plateau-like rheological behavior, enhanced complex viscosity, higher melting and thermal degradation temperature. This approach can be potentially adapted to other PLA/biopolymers composite systems.