Reactive compatibilization of poly(lactic acid)/polystyrene blends and its application to preparation of hierarchically porous poly(lactic acid)

Liangliang Gu; Elizabeth E. Nessim; Christopher W. Macosko

doi:10.1016/j.polymer.2017.11.054

Reactive compatibilization of poly(lactic acid)/polystyrene blends and its application to preparation of hierarchically porous poly(lactic acid)

Liangliang Gu, Elizabeth E. Nessim, Christopher W. Macosko

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this work hierarchically porous poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with bimodal pore size distribution was derived from reactively compatibilized ternary immiscible polymer blends. We first demonstrated the generation of submicron pores from cocontinuous PLA/oxazoline functional polystyrene (PS-OX) blends. The oxazoline groups in PS-OX reacted with the carboxylic acid end groups of PLA and formed graft copolymer at the interface, which significantly reduced the domain size. Hierarchically structured “tri-continuous” morphology was further obtained in a ternary PLA/PS-OX/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) blend. Porous PLA was made by selectively removing the PS-OX and LLDPE phases. Static annealing was used to control the pore size. The pores formed by PS-OX (∼0.5–2 μm) were one order of magnitude smaller than the pores formed by LLDPE (∼5–20 μm). The underlying thermodynamic mechanism for formation of hierarchical morphology in PLA/PS-OX/LLDPE blend was studied, and it was found that PLA/PS/PE ternary blends demonstrated complete wetting behavior with PS located at PLA/PE interface. Our results show that compatibilization with graft/block copolymer is a versatile way to achieve hierarchical microstructures in multiphase polymer blends.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	104-116
Number of pages	13
Journal	Polymer
Volume	134
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2017.11.054
State	Published - Jan 3 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the IPRIME program of the Unversity of Minnesota (80%) and the National Science Foundation under the Center for Sustainable Polymers (CHE-1413862) (20%). The authors would like to thank Yoshihisa Takamori for his help in blend design and David Giles for assistance with rheological characterization. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which is partially supported by NSF through the MRSEC program, Award No. DMR-0819885. LSCM image acquisition was carried out at the University Imaging Centers and the image processing at the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute at the University of Minnesota.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the IPRIME program of the Unversity of Minnesota (80%) and the National Science Foundation under the Center for Sustainable Polymers ( CHE-1413862 ) (20%). The authors would like to thank Yoshihisa Takamori for his help in blend design and David Giles for assistance with rheological characterization. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which is partially supported by NSF through the MRSEC program, Award No. DMR-0819885 . LSCM image acquisition was carried out at the University Imaging Centers and the image processing at the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute at the University of Minnesota.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

Complete wetting
Reactive blending
Tri-continuous polymer blend

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10.1016/j.polymer.2017.11.054

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title = "Reactive compatibilization of poly(lactic acid)/polystyrene blends and its application to preparation of hierarchically porous poly(lactic acid)",

abstract = "In this work hierarchically porous poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with bimodal pore size distribution was derived from reactively compatibilized ternary immiscible polymer blends. We first demonstrated the generation of submicron pores from cocontinuous PLA/oxazoline functional polystyrene (PS-OX) blends. The oxazoline groups in PS-OX reacted with the carboxylic acid end groups of PLA and formed graft copolymer at the interface, which significantly reduced the domain size. Hierarchically structured “tri-continuous” morphology was further obtained in a ternary PLA/PS-OX/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) blend. Porous PLA was made by selectively removing the PS-OX and LLDPE phases. Static annealing was used to control the pore size. The pores formed by PS-OX (∼0.5–2 μm) were one order of magnitude smaller than the pores formed by LLDPE (∼5–20 μm). The underlying thermodynamic mechanism for formation of hierarchical morphology in PLA/PS-OX/LLDPE blend was studied, and it was found that PLA/PS/PE ternary blends demonstrated complete wetting behavior with PS located at PLA/PE interface. Our results show that compatibilization with graft/block copolymer is a versatile way to achieve hierarchical microstructures in multiphase polymer blends.",

keywords = "Complete wetting, Reactive blending, Tri-continuous polymer blend",

author = "Liangliang Gu and Nessim, {Elizabeth E.} and Macosko, {Christopher W.}",

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AU - Nessim, Elizabeth E.

AU - Macosko, Christopher W.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the IPRIME program of the Unversity of Minnesota (80%) and the National Science Foundation under the Center for Sustainable Polymers (CHE-1413862) (20%). The authors would like to thank Yoshihisa Takamori for his help in blend design and David Giles for assistance with rheological characterization. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which is partially supported by NSF through the MRSEC program, Award No. DMR-0819885. LSCM image acquisition was carried out at the University Imaging Centers and the image processing at the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute at the University of Minnesota. Funding Information: This work was supported by the IPRIME program of the Unversity of Minnesota (80%) and the National Science Foundation under the Center for Sustainable Polymers ( CHE-1413862 ) (20%). The authors would like to thank Yoshihisa Takamori for his help in blend design and David Giles for assistance with rheological characterization. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which is partially supported by NSF through the MRSEC program, Award No. DMR-0819885 . LSCM image acquisition was carried out at the University Imaging Centers and the image processing at the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute at the University of Minnesota. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

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N2 - In this work hierarchically porous poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with bimodal pore size distribution was derived from reactively compatibilized ternary immiscible polymer blends. We first demonstrated the generation of submicron pores from cocontinuous PLA/oxazoline functional polystyrene (PS-OX) blends. The oxazoline groups in PS-OX reacted with the carboxylic acid end groups of PLA and formed graft copolymer at the interface, which significantly reduced the domain size. Hierarchically structured “tri-continuous” morphology was further obtained in a ternary PLA/PS-OX/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) blend. Porous PLA was made by selectively removing the PS-OX and LLDPE phases. Static annealing was used to control the pore size. The pores formed by PS-OX (∼0.5–2 μm) were one order of magnitude smaller than the pores formed by LLDPE (∼5–20 μm). The underlying thermodynamic mechanism for formation of hierarchical morphology in PLA/PS-OX/LLDPE blend was studied, and it was found that PLA/PS/PE ternary blends demonstrated complete wetting behavior with PS located at PLA/PE interface. Our results show that compatibilization with graft/block copolymer is a versatile way to achieve hierarchical microstructures in multiphase polymer blends.

AB - In this work hierarchically porous poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with bimodal pore size distribution was derived from reactively compatibilized ternary immiscible polymer blends. We first demonstrated the generation of submicron pores from cocontinuous PLA/oxazoline functional polystyrene (PS-OX) blends. The oxazoline groups in PS-OX reacted with the carboxylic acid end groups of PLA and formed graft copolymer at the interface, which significantly reduced the domain size. Hierarchically structured “tri-continuous” morphology was further obtained in a ternary PLA/PS-OX/linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) blend. Porous PLA was made by selectively removing the PS-OX and LLDPE phases. Static annealing was used to control the pore size. The pores formed by PS-OX (∼0.5–2 μm) were one order of magnitude smaller than the pores formed by LLDPE (∼5–20 μm). The underlying thermodynamic mechanism for formation of hierarchical morphology in PLA/PS-OX/LLDPE blend was studied, and it was found that PLA/PS/PE ternary blends demonstrated complete wetting behavior with PS located at PLA/PE interface. Our results show that compatibilization with graft/block copolymer is a versatile way to achieve hierarchical microstructures in multiphase polymer blends.

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KW - Reactive blending

KW - Tri-continuous polymer blend

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Reactive compatibilization of poly(lactic acid)/polystyrene blends and its application to preparation of hierarchically porous poly(lactic acid)

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Reporting period for MRSEC

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MRSEC IRG-1: Electrostatic Control of Materials

University of Minnesota MRSEC (DMR-0819885)

Cite this

Reactive compatibilization of poly(lactic acid)/polystyrene blends and its application to preparation of hierarchically porous poly(lactic acid)

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

How much support was provided by MRSEC?

Reporting period for MRSEC

Access

OpenUrl availability

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

MRSEC IRG-1: Electrostatic Control of Materials

University of Minnesota MRSEC (DMR-0819885)

Cite this