D. He, Yaming Wang, Chunguang Shao
Sep 1, 2013
Citations
1
Influential Citations
68
Citations
Journal
Polymer Testing
Abstract
Abstract The effect of phthalimide compound on the nonisothermal and isothermal crystallization behavior of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarized optical microscopy. It was found that the incorporation of a small amount of phthalimide promoted the crystallization of PLA significantly. The Avrami model was applied to analyze the isothermal crystallization kinetics. It was found that the Avrami exponent was higher for PLA/phthalimide blends than for neat PLA, indicating a heterogeneous nucleation mechanism. These results indicate that phthalimide may act as an efficient nucleating agent to improve the crystallization of PLA and expand its applications.