Preparation and Properties of Toughened <scp>PLA</scp>/<scp>PBAT</scp> Blends Based on <scp>EVA</scp> and Multi‐Functional Epoxy Chain Extender
Rongyuan Chen, Fu‐peng Zhang, Bi‐hui Jin, Lin Han, Zhonghou Zhang, Bao‐de Lin, Fan Pan, Shaoming Fang
Abstract
ABSTRACT The effects of ethylene‐vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) and multi‐component epoxy chain expander (ADR) on the performance of PLA/PBAT blend were investigated by preparing PLA/PBAT/EVA blends and PLA/PBAT/EVA/ADR blends through melt blending method. The mechanical properties, morphology, thermal behavior, and rheological properties were studied. The addition of EVA had a slight improvement on the impact strength of PLA, while the tensile strength had a decrease and elongation at break had significant increase. The microstructure of PLA/PBAT/EVA also showed a sea‐island morphology, the EVA had a small impact on the rheological property of PLA/PBAT blend. When introduced ADR in the PLA/PBAT/EVA blend, the morphology showed that the interface interaction of the blends was been significantly improved. As a result, the rheological property, including the complex viscosity, storage modulus and loss modulus increased remarkably compared with PLA. The impact strength of PLA/PBAT/EVA/ADR blends had a significant improvement, the highest impact strength reaches 51.99 kJ/m 2 , which is 22.3 times higher than that of PLA. The elongation at break of the blend maintains in the range of 400%–500% with tensile strength 43.5 MPa. Furthermore, the PLA/PBAT/EVA/ADR blends also showed an improved of heat resistance and thermostability compared with PLA.