20959_ftp.pdf

Porous Poly(L-lactic acid)/Poly(ethylene glycol) Blend Films Koji Nakane,1 Yoshihiro Hata,1 Keisuke Morita,2 Takashi Ogihara,1 Nobuo Ogata1 1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Fukui, Bunkyo 3–9-1, Fukui 910-8507, Japan 2Department of Textile, Industrial Research Institute of Ishikawa Prefecture, Kuratsuki 2–1, Kanazawa 920-8203, Japan Received 4 February 2004; accepted 17 May 2004 DOI 10.1002/app.20959 Published online in Wiley InterScience (). 4 pure PLLA: 172.5°C, PLLA/PEG 60/40 wt %: 159.6°C). ABSTRACT: Poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA: Mw 19.4 10 )/ poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG: Mw 400) blend films were The PEG 20 wt % blend film had a porous structure. The formed by use of a solvent-cast technique. The properties pore diameter was 3–5 m. The alkali hydrolysis rate of this and structures of these blend films were investigated. The blend film was accelerated due to its porous structure. © 2004 Young’s modulus of the PLLA decreased from 1220 to 417 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 965–970, 2004 MPa with the addition of PEG 5 wt %, but the elongation at break increased from 19 to 126%. The melting point of PLLA linearly decreased with increases in the PEG content (i.e., Key words: biodegradable; blends; films INTRODUCTION mixture, especially at PLLA or PEG contents below 20 wt %. Nakafuku et al.7,8 investigated the crystal- Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a biodegradable thermoplas- lization of a PLLA/PEG blend system in detail. tic polyester that has been extensively investigated