Structure and properties of polylactide/natural rubber blends

Polylactide, PLA, is a biodegradable thermoplastic polyester derived from biomass that has restricted packaging applications due to its high brittleness and poor crystallisation behaviour. Here, new formulations based on natural rubber–PLA blends have been developed. The processing windows, temperature, time, and rotor rate, and the rubber content have been optimised in order to obtain a blend with useful properties. The rubber phase was uniformly dispersed in the continuous PLA matrix with a droplet size range from 1.1 to 2.0 μm. The ductility of PLA has been significantly improved by blending with natural rubber, NR. The elongation at break improved from 5% for neat PLA to 200% by adding 10 wt% NR. In addition, the incorporation of NR not only increased the crystallisation rate but also enhanced the crystallisation ability of PLA. These materials are, therefore, very promising for industrial applications.

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► Straightforward method to produce flexible PLA has been developed.
► Natural rubber increases the brittleness of PLA without sacrificing the transparency of the material.
► The elastomeric phase acts as nucleating agent favouring the crystallisation ability of PLA.