Thermorheological properties of poly (e-caprolactone)/polylactide blends

Blends of poly (e-caprolactone) (PCL)/polylactide (PLA) were prepared by solution-casting method to study their thermal and rheological properties. Differential scanning calorimetry thermographs have shown two separate melting peaks in the blends, which are indicative of immiscible structure at all compositions. Scanning electron microscopy images show droplet morphology of PCL into PLA matrix up to 40 wt% of PCL. Above this concentration, the co-continuous morphology starts to appear, which becomes again droplet morphology for blends with concentration of PCL higher than about 60 wt%. The viscoelastic properties of the various blends were investigated using rotational rheometry. The enhancement of the elastic modulus of blends at small frequencies at which terminal zone behavior is expected, is a signature behavior of immiscible systems due to the presence of interface and contribution to the stress from interfacial tension. Two emulsion models were used to predict the viscoelastic properties of the blends from the corresponding properties of their pure components that led to the determination of the interfacial tension of PCL/PLA in agreement with experimental findings. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. (C) 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers