Material BehaviourEffect of ozone exposure on thermal and structural properties of polylactide based composites

One of the factors that influence the properties of polymers and polymer-based composites in ambient conditions is ozone. The aim of this work was to determine the effect of ozone on polylactide and its composites consisting of polylactide (L) as polymer matrix and Montmorillonite K10 (S). The variation of the materials structural and thermal properties after exposure to ozone, ranging from 1 to 4 months, have been studied using infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), atomic force microscopy (AFM) differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TG). The results indicate that the addition of the filler accelerates ozone-induced degradation. The incorporation of montmorillonite however does not change the mechanism of the degradation process. The AFM images of the microstructure of polylactide and polylactide-based composites after ozone treatment indicate that the introduction of an unmodified nanofiller into the system decreases the changes in the surface morphology. Present study reveals that ozone significantly influence the structure and properties of polylactide-based composites.