| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1258013 | Chinese Chemical Letters | 2009 | 5 Pages |
In situ melt polycondensation was proposed to prepare biodegradable aliphatic–aromatic copolyesters/nano-SiO2 hybrids based on terephthalic acid (TPA), poly(l-lactic acid) oligomer (OLLA), 1,4-butanediol (BDO) and nano-SiO2. TEM and FT-IR characterizations confirmed that TPA, OLLA and BDO copolymerized to obtain biodegradable copolyesters, poly(butylene terephthalate-co-lactate) (PBTL), and the abundant hydroxyl groups on the surface of nano-SiO2 provided potential sites for in situ grafting with the simultaneous resulted PBTL. The nano-SiO2 particles were chemically wrapped with PBTL to form PBTL/nano-SiO2 hybrids. Due to the good dispersion and interfacial adhesion of nano-SiO2 particles with the copolyester matrix, the tensile strength and the Young's modulus increased from 5.4 and 5.6 MPa for neat PBTL to 16 and 390 MPa for PBTL/nano-SiO2 hybrids with 5 wt.% nano-SiO2, respectively. The mechanical properties of PBTL/nano-SiO2 hybrids were substantially improved.
