Filling behavior, morphology evolution and crystallization behavior of microinjection molded poly(lactic acid)/hydroxyapatite nanocomposites

In this paper, the filling behavior, morphology evolution, crystallization behavior, thermal stability and mechanical property of poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/hydroxyapatite (HA) nanocomposite under microinjection molding conditions were systematically investigated. The comparison between micropart and macropart of PLA/HA nanocomposite was also conducted. Results showed that in the four stages occurring in the microinjection molding process, the mold cavity filling stage is an extremely rapid process and injection speed influences the filling behavior much more significantly than mold temperature. The remarkably enhanced shear force field generated under microinjection molding conditions proves to be beneficial to formation of highly oriented PLA matrix self-fibrillating structure, improvement of HA filler dispersion and enhancement of interfacial combination. Formation of such a highly oriented structure could lead to the remarkable difference in both crystallization behavior and mechanical property between micropart and macropart. The PLA/HA nanocomposite micropart possessed a significantly enhanced mechanical property and showed a good application prospect.