Enhancing toughness of poly (lactic acid)/Thermoplastic polyurethane blends via increasing interface compatibility by polyurethane elastomer prepolymer and its toughening mechanism

Due to the environmental pollution caused by the petroleum-based polymer, poly (lactic acid) (PLA), a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer that obtained from natural and renewable sources, has attracted widespread attention. However, the brittleness of PLA greatly limits its application. In this study, the super toughened PLA-based blends were obtained by compatibilizing the PLA/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) blends with the polyurethane elastomer prepolymer (PUEP) as an active compatibilizer. The mechanical properties, thermal properties and corresponding toughening mechanism of PLA/TPU/PUEP system were studied by tensile test, instrumented impact test, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), scanning electronic microscope (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). All the results demonstrate that the isocyanate (−NCO) group in PUEP is successfully reacted with the –OH groups at both sides of the PLA and the obtained polyurethane (PU)~PLA copolymer (PU ~ cõ PLA) significantly improves the interfacial compatibility of PLA/TPU blends. The gradually refined dispersed phase size and fuzzy phase interface as displayed in SEM images suggest a good interfacial compatibilization in the PLA/TPU/PUEP blends, probably due to the isocyanate reaction between PLA and PUEP. And the interfacial reaction and compatibilization among the components led to the formation of super toughened PLA/TPU/PUEP blends. And the instrumented impact results indicate that most of the impact toughness is provided by the crack propagation rather than the crack initiation during the entire fracture process.