Enhanced crystallinity, toughness, and heat resistance of PLA using EVA, nucleating agent, and controlled crystallization

Csézi, Gergely and Mészáros, László and Tábi, Tamás (2026) Enhanced crystallinity, toughness, and heat resistance of PLA using EVA, nucleating agent, and controlled crystallization. POLYMER BULLETIN, 83 (4). No. 170. ISSN 0170-0839

	Text s00289-025-06225-0.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (1MB)
Preview	Text Revised manuscript (1).pdf Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

In this paper, we simultaneously improved the crystallinity, heat deflection temperature (HDT) and toughness of injection-molded poly(lactic acid) (PLA). We achieved this through the use of a nucleating agent (NA) and the impact modifier ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), and by in-mold crystallization (IMC) and post-production crystallization (PPC). The best results were achieved when 10 wt% EVA and 2 wt% NA were added to PLA, which was injection-molded into a cold mold and then annealed at 80 °C. In this case, the properties of the resulting PLA were very close to the properties of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene. In the case of IMC, the best results were obtained when PLA was modified with 20 wt% EVA and 2 wt% NA and crystallized in a mold at 90 °C. The main difference between the resulting properties of modified PLA subjected to IMC and PPC was in strain at break: 3.5% for IMC and 14.6% for PPC. As the PLA-based compounds were crystallized by IMC and PPC, this huge difference between the strain at break of the samples can be explained with the differences in the crystalline structures developing under different conditions (crystalline modifications, spherulite size, etc.).

Actions (login required)

Edit Item