Effect of In Situ Reaction on Thermal and Mechanical Properties of Polylactide/Talc Composites

The biodegradable composites with low cost and excellent mechanical property, namely PLA/talc blends, have been successfully prepared by using epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) as a reactive compatibilizer with the presence of peroxides to accelerate the in situ grafting between talc and other components. The surface treatment of talc powder was performed through the in situ reactions of its rich hydroxyl groups with the epoxide ring of ESO and scission radical of PLA during the blending process. Both FTIR and the extracting experiment results verified that surface modification mechanisms. Such a facile and efficient one-step process can bring a dramatic improvement on both miscibility and mechanical properties of the PLA/talc composites. (C) 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers