pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S05 - Novel processing technologies
Keynote Presentation
 
 

Low-temperature sintering of stereocomplex-type polylactide nascent powder: from compression molding to injection molding

Fu Qiang (1)*, Bai Hongwei (1)

(1) Sichuan University - Sichuan - China

Stereocomplex (SC) crystallization between poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) and poly(D-lactide) (PDLA) has been recognized as the most robust ways to significantly improve the mechanical strength, heat resistance and hydrolytic resistance of PLA. However, it is still challenging to fabricate high-performance SC-PLA products by melt-processing of high-molecular-weight PLLA/PDLA blends due to the insufficient melt stability of SC crystallites to trigger excusive SC crystallization after complete melting and serious thermal degradation of PLA chains at an elevated processing temperature of ca. 240-260 °C. Inspired by the concept of powder metallurgy, we proposed a low-temperature (180-210 °C) compression sintering technology to fabricate SC-PLA products from its nascent powder. During the sintering process, the PLLA/PDLA segments can interdiffuse across interfaces of adjacent powder particles and then co-crystallize into new SC crystallites capable of tightly welding the interfaces. As a result, transparent SC-PLA products with excellent heat/hydrolytic resistance have been fabricated for the first time. The effects of chain structure and additives on the processing-microstructure-property of the sintered products have been investigated. Very recently, to address the low production efficiency (at least half an hour is required) and the great difficulty to fabricate products with complex shapes, we attempted to realize rapid sintering of partially melted SC-PLA powder by using highly efficient low-temperature injection molding. Importantly, to assure appropriate powder flowability, small amounts of glyceryl monostearate (GMS) capable of serving as a lubricant were incorporated. In this way, complex-shaped SC-PLA products (such as gears) with superb properties have been fabricated and the sintering cycle can be considerably shortened to ca. 2 min. We believe that this work could provide a promising avenue towards industrial-scale fabrication of high-performance SC-PLA products.