Effect of polyethylene glycol on the crystallization, rheology and foamability of poly(lactic acid) containing in situ generated polyamide 6 nanofibrils

In this study, the rheological properties, crystallization and foaming behavior of poly(lactic acid) with polyamide 6 nanofibrils were examined with polyethylene glycol as a compatibilizer. Polyamide 6 particles were deformed into nanofibrils during drawing. For the 10% polyamide 6 case, polyethylene glycol addition reduced the polyamide 6 fibril diameter from 365.53 to 254.63 nm, owing to the smaller polyamide 6 particle size and enhanced interface adhesion. Rheological experiments revealed that the viscosity and storage modulus of the composites were increased, which was associated with the three-dimensional entangled network of polyamide 6 nanofibrils. The presence of higher aspect ratio polyamide 6 nanofibrils substantially enhanced the melt strength of the composites. The isothermal crystallization kinetics results suggested that the polyamide 6 nanofibrils and polyethylene glycol had a synergistic effect on accelerating poly(lactic acid) crystallization. With the polyethylene glycol, the crystallization half-time reduced from 103.6 to 62.2 s. Batch foaming results indicated that owing to higher cell nucleation efficiency, the existence of polyamide 6 nanofibrils led to a higher cell density and lower expansion ratio. Furthermore, the poly(lactic acid)/polyamide 6 foams exhibited a higher cell density and expansion ratio than that of the foams without polyethylene glycol.