Pickering emulsion process assisted construction of regenerated chitin reinforced poly (lactic acid) blends

François Xavier Munyazesa; Yunchong Zhang; Bijia Wang; Chaosheng Wang; Xueling Feng; Zhiping Mao; Ye Chen; Xiaofeng Sui

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.08.117

Pickering emulsion process assisted construction of regenerated chitin reinforced poly (lactic acid) blends

Int J Biol Macromol. 2019 Nov 1:140:10-16. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.08.117. Epub 2019 Aug 13.

Authors

François Xavier Munyazesa¹, Yunchong Zhang¹, Bijia Wang¹, Chaosheng Wang², Xueling Feng¹, Zhiping Mao¹, Ye Chen³, Xiaofeng Sui⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Lab of Science and Technology of Eco-Textile, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People's Republic of China.
² State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People's Republic of China.
³ State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: chenye@dhu.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Lab of Science and Technology of Eco-Textile, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: suixf@dhu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31419550
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.08.117

Abstract

Regenerated chitin (RCh)/poly (lactic acid) (PLA) blends with enhanced properties were successfully prepared via the Pickering emulsion approach. An oil-in-water Pickering emulsion of PLA/dichloromethane (DCM) stabilized with RCh via an ultrasonic homogenizer was formed. A uniformly dispersed blends were obtained upon slow volatilization of DCM. The effects of RCh on physical/morphological, thermal, mechanical and rheology properties of the blends were studied. The introduction of RCh in PLA improved its crystallinity from 23.4% to over 38.0%. The blends displayed an improvement in storage modulus of 393% at 70 °C for 2 wt%RCh as compared with neat PLA. The RCh/PLA blends showed an enhancement in both tensile strength and elongation at break of 18% and 31% respectively at the loading of 1.5 wt%-RCh. Moreover, the complex viscosity of the blends was increased compared to neat PLA, and all the blends exhibited shear-thinning behaviour without any plateau region at low angular frequencies (ω < 10 rad/s). These results suggest that the low weight content RCh introduced to PLA matrix via this facile Pickering emulsion approach not only promotes nucleation in RCh/PLA blends but also acts as a promising reinforcing agent for PLA.

Keywords: Pickering emulsion; Poly (lactic acid); Regenerated chitin.

MeSH terms

Chitin / chemistry*
Emulsions
Polyesters / chemistry*
Tensile Strength

Substances

Emulsions
Polyesters
Chitin
poly(lactide)