Structural evolution of poly(lactic acid) upon uniaxial stretching investigated by in situ infrared spectroscopy

Structural evolution of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) upon uniaxial stretching was studied with in-situ polarized infrared spectroscopy measurements, and its structural change affected by annealing was also investigated. Band shifting was used to reflect the structural ordering process. It was found that the band at 1302 cm−1 always moves to low wavenumbers before crystallization, indicating the occurrence of intermolecular packing ordering. However, the band at 869 cm−1 shifts to high wavenumbers, which is related to the transition from the amorphous phase to the ordered phase. Interestingly, during stretching, the shifting for the band at 1302 cm−1 always occurs before that for the lower wavenumber band, whereas these two band shifts take place simultaneously under annealing. Based on the different characteristics of the structural evolution under stretching and annealing processes, a critical temperature was found at around 63 °C, which influences the effect weight of kinetic and thermodynamic factors to the crystallization behavior. The effect of the drawing temperature on crystallization and mechanical property of PLA films was also analyzed.