Mechanical characteristics and thermal behaviours of polylactide blend films: influence of nucleating agent and poly(butylenes adipate-co-terephthalate)

Polylactide (PLA) blend films with poly(butylenes adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) and a nucleating agent were prepared by the melt compounding technique. Thermal stability of the PLA decreased with added nucleating agent; in contrast, the decomposition temperature increased with the presence of PBAT. In addition, the differential scanning calorimetry thermograms demonstrated that the heterogeneous nucleation and cold crystallisation processes of the PLA blend films were accelerated. The influence of the type and level of the nucleating agent and the presence of PBAT on the tensile properties, impact resistance, thermal stability and non-isothermal crystallisation behaviours of the PLA blend films were investigated. Both the PLA/nucleating agents and the PLA/PBAT/nucleating agent blends showed significant effects from the changes in the nucleation process on their tensile properties, impact toughness and thermal behaviour. Furthermore, the impact energy that the PLA blends absorbed during the entire impact tension test was obviously enhanced by the increased content of the nucleating agent.