Fracture behavior of extruded films based on Poly(lactic)acid (PLA) blends

MATHILDE SICCARDI, X.X. GARCIA-FONTE, VALERIA PETTARIN, MARÍA JOSÉ ABAD, CELINA BERNAL

Bogotá

Simposio; Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros; 2012

In this paper, biodegradable films based on Poly(lactic)acid (PLA) blends were obtained by extrusion. Two commercial grades of PLA having different mechanical properties were used to prepare the blends. Materials´ fracture behavior and the effect of the rolling speed on this behavior were investigated. Fracture behavior was studied under both in plane and out of plane loading conditions through quasi-static fracture tests on DENT specimens and biaxial impact tests, respectively. Different fracture behaviors were displayed by the materials, hence J-Integral at maximum load was adopted to compare those behaviors. The blend with 20 wt% of ductile PLA displayed the best fracture behavior under both loading conditions investigated. In addition, the increase in the rolling speed was detrimental to the material fracture behavior.