Characterization and melt spinning of poly (lactic acid)/poly (ethylene glycol) blends

• Main Authors: Mohd Akhir, Nur atiqah, Othman, Maizatulnisa, Fachmi Buys, Yose, Shaffiar, Norhashimah, Jimat, Dzun Noraini, Syed Shaharuddin, Sharifah Imihezri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Engineering International Islamic University Malaysia 2021
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/95031/7/95031_Characterization%20and%20melt%20spinning.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/95031/; https://journals.iium.edu.my/ejournal/index.php/iiumej/index
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

: In this study, melt blended compositions of pure PLA with additions of polyethylene glycol (PEG) up to 30 wt% were prepared. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to investigate the properties of PLA/PEG blends, such as structural, thermal, and morphological properties. The results showed that further increments of PEG cause the -OH group of PLA/PEG blends to show a broad peak, indicating that there is hydrogen bonding interaction between PEG and PLA chains. DSC result revealed that the addition of PEG decreases the glass transition temperature from 57 °C to 46 °C and crystallization temperature from 107 °C to 87 °C. Such trends suggest enhanced chain mobility of PLA chains. TGA thermograms showed that further additions of PEG into PLA resulted in a consistent shift to lower temperature and decrease in thermal stability. Optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations of the melt spun PLA/PEG microfibers revealed that the diameter of the microfibers averaged between 15 to 80 microns.