Preparation and Characterization of Nano Particle Reinforced Polyactides Composite

Polylactides (PLA) based composite films modified with nanoclay content ranges from 0-30 wt% were fabricated using solvent casting method and the mechanical properties, water vapor permeability, oxygen barrier, thermal stability and optical properties were studied. The study showed that the addition of up to 15 wt% of clay has caused a significant improvement of tensile strength of the PLA/nanoclay composite film However, the further increasing of nanoclay content of >15 wt% of nanoclay has caused a significant reduction in tensile, elongation at break and optical properties of PLA matrix. Both the oxygen and water permeability of the PLA/nanoclay composite film decrease with the increasing of nanoclay contents. Greater water barrier properties would be achieved if the high nanoclay contents of 10-30 wt% were dispersed homogenous within the PLA matrix. The addition of nanoclay greater than 10 wt% affected the appearance of the film (i.e. increasing the haze and Delta E). Thermal analysis result has proved that the melting temperature, crystallization temperature and glass transition temperature of the composite film only slightly affected by the addition of nanoclay due to the immobilization polymer chain in the composite film.