High toughness biodegradable radiopaque composites based on polylactide and barium sulphate

In the present work, incorporation of submicron barium sulphate (BaSO4) particles to a poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) matrix is explored as a strategy to improve the radiopacity and simultaneously enhance the toughness of the resulting composites. Accordingly, BaSO4 loaded PLLA composites were prepared via melt-blending and were fully characterized in terms of thermal transitions, mechanical properties, morphology and radiopacity. X-ray analysis confirmed the enhanced radiopacity of the BaSO4 filled composites with respect to their unfilled counterparts. Additionally, toughness of PLLA matrix was impressively improved when BaSO4 particles were added. As an illustration, incorporation of 10 wt.% of BaSO4 particles resulted in a 1647 and 3338% increase in toughness and elongation of PLLA matrix, respectively. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.