Nonisothermal melt and cold crystallization behaviors of biodegradable poly(lactic acid)/Ti3C2Tx MXene nanocomposites

In this work, biodegradable poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/Ti3C2Tx MXene nanocomposites were prepared through melt compounding. The roles of MXene in nonisothermal melt and cold crystallization of PLA were explored. The morphology, structure and crystallization behavior were studied using polarized optical microscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. For nonisothermal melt crystallization, the presence of MXene increases the crystallinity and shortens the half-crystallization time but does not change the crystallization peak temperature of PLA. For nonisothermal crystallization from the glassy state, the incorporation of MXene decreases the cold crystallization peak temperature and reduces the crystallinity marginally but does not affect the half-crystallization time of PLA. The crystallization kinetics analysis based on the Avrami equation shows that, for both the melt and cold crystallization, the crystallization mechanism is unchanged irrespective of the addition of MXene. The investigation would be useful for understanding the correlation between processing and properties of PLA/MXene nanocomposites.

Automated summary

The study showed that the presence of MXene in nonisothermal melt crystallization increases crystallinity and shortens half-crystallization time, but does not change the crystallization peak temperature of PLA. In nonisothermal crystallization from the glassy state, the incorporation of MXene decreases the cold crystallization peak temperature and reduces crystallinity marginally, without affecting the half-crystallization time of PLA.