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Investigation of poly(l-lactic acid)/graphene oxide composites crystallization and nanopore foaming behaviors via supercritical carbon dioxide low temperature foaming

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2016

Li-Hong Geng
Affiliation:
Department of Industrial Equipment and Control Engineering, School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China; and National Engineer Research Center of Novel Equipment for Polymer Processing, The Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering of Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China
Xiang-Fang Peng
Affiliation:
National Engineer Research Center of Novel Equipment for Polymer Processing, The Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering of Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China
Xin Jing
Affiliation:
Department of Industrial Equipment and Control Engineering, School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China
Leng-Wan Li
Affiliation:
Technology Development Center for Polymer Processing Engineering of Guangdong Colleges and Universities, Guangdong Industry Technical College, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China
An Huang
Affiliation:
Technology Development Center for Polymer Processing Engineering of Guangdong Colleges and Universities, Guangdong Industry Technical College, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China
Bai-Ping Xu
Affiliation:
Technology Development Center for Polymer Processing Engineering of Guangdong Colleges and Universities, Guangdong Industry Technical College, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China
Bin-Yi Chen*
Affiliation:
National Engineer Research Center of Novel Equipment for Polymer Processing, The Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering of Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China
Hao-Yang Mi*
Affiliation:
Department of Industrial Equipment and Control Engineering, School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, People's Republic of China
*
a) Address all correspondence to these authors. e-mail: mehymi@scut.edu.cn
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Abstract

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites were prepared by solution mixing. Differential scanning calorimetry results indicated that GO was an effective nucleating agent. The size of spherulites decreased, the density of spherulites increased with increasing GO and the crystallinity of PLA increased from 4.34 to 49.01%. For isothermal crystallization, the crystallization rates of PLA/GO nanocomposites were significantly higher than that of neat PLA, in which t 0.5 reduced from 9.0 to 2.8. Spindle-like nanopores (about 100–200 nm) that arranged like spherulites were prepared by low temperature foaming. It was found that the crystallization rate increase and spherulite morphology change were insignificant when the content of GO exceeded 0.5 wt%, because the excessive GO increased the number of nucleation sites while restricting the PLA crystal growth. Thus, the arrangement of nanopores did not mimick the spherulites because of imperfect crystal morphology.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2016 

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Footnotes

Contributing Editor: Linda S. Schadler

References

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