TY - JOUR
T1 - A clean approach for potential continuous mass production of high-molecular-weight polylactide fibers with fully stereo-complexed crystallites
AU - Pan, Gangwei
AU - Xu, Helan
AU - Mu, Bingnan
AU - Ma, Bomou
AU - Yang, Yiqi
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was financially supported by National Institute of Food and Agriculture of U.S. Department of Agriculture (Multi-State Project S1054 ( NEB 37-037 ) and USDA Hatch Act), and the Agricultural Research Division at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Gangwei are grateful to the China Scholarship Council for the financial support. The authors appreciate support from Graduate Student Innovation Plan of Jiangsu Province ( CXZZ13_0751 ) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities ( JUDCF13021 , JUSRP51505 , JUSRP51723B ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/3/1
Y1 - 2018/3/1
N2 - A clean and cost-effective method for 100% stereo-complexation in polylactide (PLA) fibers with molecular weight (MW) as high as 6 × 105 demonstrates good potential for industrial-scale continuous manufacture. Polylactide, a widely recognized biodegradable and renewable biopolymer, has a negligible share of plastic markets due to its poor hydrolytic and thermal resistance. Stereo-complexation is effective in overcoming these challenges. However, current stereo-complexation approaches usually require solvents and/or external nucleation reagents, and are expensive and complicated. Moreover, high-MW PLAs favored for developing durable products are difficult to be stereo-complexed. In this research, enantiomeric PLAs both with MW up to 6 × 105 were completely stereo-complexed via a facile thermal treatment on pilot-scale devices. Neither solvent nor nucleation agent was used. For poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) fibers with MW of 6 × 105, percentage retention of MW and percentage retention of tensile strength after hydrolysis under simulated textile dyeing condition increased from 39% to 93% and from 20% to 89%, respectively, after complete stereo-complexation. The melting point, softening point and percentage retention of MW after hydrolysis of stereo-complexed PLA (sc-PLA) fibers were up to 51 °C, up to 59 °C and up to 183% higher than that of PLLA fibers with the same MW, respectively. The mechanism of thorough stereo-complexation in high-MW PLA fibers was proposed and verified. It is promising to use this approach to broaden industrial applications of renewable and degradable biopolymers for sustainable development of material industries.
AB - A clean and cost-effective method for 100% stereo-complexation in polylactide (PLA) fibers with molecular weight (MW) as high as 6 × 105 demonstrates good potential for industrial-scale continuous manufacture. Polylactide, a widely recognized biodegradable and renewable biopolymer, has a negligible share of plastic markets due to its poor hydrolytic and thermal resistance. Stereo-complexation is effective in overcoming these challenges. However, current stereo-complexation approaches usually require solvents and/or external nucleation reagents, and are expensive and complicated. Moreover, high-MW PLAs favored for developing durable products are difficult to be stereo-complexed. In this research, enantiomeric PLAs both with MW up to 6 × 105 were completely stereo-complexed via a facile thermal treatment on pilot-scale devices. Neither solvent nor nucleation agent was used. For poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) fibers with MW of 6 × 105, percentage retention of MW and percentage retention of tensile strength after hydrolysis under simulated textile dyeing condition increased from 39% to 93% and from 20% to 89%, respectively, after complete stereo-complexation. The melting point, softening point and percentage retention of MW after hydrolysis of stereo-complexed PLA (sc-PLA) fibers were up to 51 °C, up to 59 °C and up to 183% higher than that of PLLA fibers with the same MW, respectively. The mechanism of thorough stereo-complexation in high-MW PLA fibers was proposed and verified. It is promising to use this approach to broaden industrial applications of renewable and degradable biopolymers for sustainable development of material industries.
KW - Continuous production
KW - Hydrolysis resistance
KW - Polylactide fiber
KW - Softening temperature
KW - Solvent-free
KW - Stereo-complexation
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.096
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.096
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85040641323
VL - 176
SP - 151
EP - 158
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
SN - 0959-6526
ER -