Sustainable Poly(lactide-b-butadiene) Multiblock Copolymers with Enhanced Mechanical Properties
Abstract
To develop mechanically improved polylactide (PLA)-based sustainable polymers, a series of poly(lactide- b -butadiene) (PLA–PB) multiblock copolymers were synthesized in a two-step procedure: PLA–PB–PLA (LBL) triblock copolymers were prepared using ring-opening polymerization of d, l -lactide, followed by chain extension of LBL triblock polymers with toluene-2,4-diisocyanate (TDI) and terephthaloyl chloride (TCl). Molecular characterization revealed that the synthetic procedures yielded the desired triblock and multiblock copolymers with a composition range of 0.5 ≤ f PLA ≤ 0.9. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) demonstrated nearly identical, well-ordered, morphologies in the homologous triblock and multiblock copolymer materials, in sharp contrast with the findings of a recent study involving poly(styrene- b -butadiene) (PS–PB) multiblock polymers. These results indicate a transition from classically ordered morphologies to a state of bicontinuous disorder for multiblocks containing ⟨ n ′⟩ ≥ 10, where ⟨ n ′⟩ is the average total number of blocks. Lamellae ( f PLA = 0.6) and cylinder ( f PLA = 0.7 and 0.8) forming PLA–PB multiblock copolymers exhibited dramatically enhanced mechanical properties compared to the corresponding LBL triblock copolymers. However, this toughening effect was not evident in samples containing a spherical morphology ( f PLA = 0.9). These findings demonstrate a comme…
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Since the hard block is poly(lactide), at a fixed molar mass, decreasing the polarity of the midblock segment effectively increases the segregation strength of the two blocks.
“Since in this work the hard block is poly(lactide), at a fi xed molar mass, decreasing the polarity of the midblock segment e ff ectively increases the segregation strength of the two blocks. 11,13,64,85 -89”
From Aliphatic Polyester Block Polymer Design (2016) · cites this paper as [85]
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- Authors
- Lee, I., Panthani, T. R., & Bates, F. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bates, Frank S.
- Venue
- Macromolecules
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2013-09-03
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 18
- Pages
- 7387-7398
- ISSN
- 0024-9297 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-5835
- OpenAlex
- W1965957330
- Cited by
- 117
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 10
- FWCI
- 4.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Macromolecules (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Office of Science
- Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University
- Argonne National Laboratory
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Block Copolymer Self-Assembly
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Biomaterials › biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Polymers and Plastics › Polymer crystallization and properties
- Keywords
- multiblock copolymers, triblock copolymers, polylactic acid, 1,3-butadiene, ring-opening polymerization, chain extension, 2,4-toluene diisocyanate, terephthaloyl chloride, morphology (materials science), lamellar morphology, cylindrical morphology, spherical morphology, mechanical properties, toughening, sustainable plastics
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