Manipulation of crystallization nucleation and thermal degradation of PLA films by multi-morphologies CNC-ZnO nanoparticles

Ya-Fang Yan; Xiao-Bo Liang; Yan-Long Feng; Lin-Fang Shi; Rui-Pin Chen; Jian-Zhong Guo; Ying Guan

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121251

Manipulation of crystallization nucleation and thermal degradation of PLA films by multi-morphologies CNC-ZnO nanoparticles

Carbohydr Polym. 2023 Nov 15:320:121251. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121251. Epub 2023 Aug 6.

Authors

Ya-Fang Yan¹, Xiao-Bo Liang¹, Yan-Long Feng¹, Lin-Fang Shi¹, Rui-Pin Chen², Jian-Zhong Guo³, Ying Guan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Utilization of Forestry Biomass, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China.
² Key Laboratory of Optical Field Manipulation of Zhejiang Province, Department of Physics, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
³ Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Utilization of Forestry Biomass, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China. Electronic address: gjianzhong123@163.com.
⁴ Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Utilization of Forestry Biomass, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China. Electronic address: gying0423@163.com.

PMID: 37659828
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2023.121251

Abstract

Currently, the quest for more renewable and biodegradable materials is a scientific priority to address the problems of petroleum-based plastics are difficult to degrade. In this work, cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) have been used as a template and four morphologies of CNC-ZnO nanocomposites were prepared via a hydrothermal method, and CNC-ZnO/polylactic acid (PLA) composite films were obtained by solution casting. We find that CNC-ZnO nanocomposites as heterogeneous nucleating agents improved the crystallinity and the film with flower-like CNC-ZnO was improved by 2.4 %. E_a required for thermal degradation of the PLA films decreased to 66-81 % of that of neat PLA, calculated by the Kissinger method, the Friedman method, and the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) method. The R2 model was the solid degradation mechanism of the PLA films, analyzed through the Coats-Redfern method and the Criado method. The H-bond content of the composite films was significantly reduced after thermal aging at 150 °C. We found that three-dimensional CNC-ZnO (ZnO-3) made more prominent contributions to the crystallization, thermal degradation, and thermal aging of PLA films than other dimensional. The thermal properties can be regulated by the dimension, size, and apparent morphology of CNC-ZnO nanoparticles.

Keywords: CNC-ZnO nanocomposites; Crystallization; PLA; Thermal aging; Thermal degradation kinetics.