Polylactic Acid/Cerium Fluoride Films: Effects of Cerium Fluoride on Mechanical Properties, Crystallinity, Thermal Behavior, and Transparency

Yincai Wu; Xintu Lin; Jinlei Li; Chuanxiang Zhang; Yuejun Liu; Lijun Song; Xihai Hao; Fenglong Lin; Shenglong Wang; Tungalag Dong

doi:10.3390/ma14174882

Polylactic Acid/Cerium Fluoride Films: Effects of Cerium Fluoride on Mechanical Properties, Crystallinity, Thermal Behavior, and Transparency

Materials (Basel). 2021 Aug 27;14(17):4882. doi: 10.3390/ma14174882.

Authors

Yincai Wu^{1

2}, Xintu Lin¹, Jinlei Li², Chuanxiang Zhang¹, Yuejun Liu¹, Lijun Song^{2

3}, Xihai Hao¹, Fenglong Lin^{1

2}, Shenglong Wang², Tungalag Dong⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Packaging Materials and Technology of Hunan Province, School of Packaging and Materials Engineering, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou 412007, China.
² Xiamen Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Photoelectric Functional Materials, Xiamen Institute of Rare Earth Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Design and Assembly of Functional Nanostructures, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou 350002, China.
⁴ School of College of Food Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010000, China.

Abstract

PLA is widely used in the field of disposable products for its good transparency, high strength, high modulus, and good processing performance. However, the crystallization rate and crystallinity of PLA are weak. In actual production, the PLA products that are typically obtained are amorphous with poor heat resistance, which greatly limits the application range of PLA products. Finding an effective nucleating agent to improve the transparency of PLA has been a hot topic in research. This study found that Cerium fluoride (CeF₃) can effectively improve the crystallinity of PLA/CeF₃ (P/F) films. When the content of CeF₃ in PLA was 1 wt %, the retention ratio of visible light transmittance was 82.36%, the crystallinity was 29.8%, and the tensile strength was 59.92 MPa. Compared to pure PLA, the crystallinity of P/F1 increased by 56% and tensile strength increased by 8.76%. This study provided an alternative scheme that maintained the PLA film's transparency and improved the crystallinity of PLA, which significantly expanded the application of PLA.

Keywords: CeF3; PLA; crystallinity; transparency; visible light transmittance.

Abstract

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