Preparation And Characterizations Of Poly(L-Lactic Acid) (Plla) Blends And Plla Scaffold

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Date
2011-02
Authors
Vannaladsaysy, Vilay
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Optimization of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) blends was carried out by blending with ductile biopolymers such as poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), poly(butylene succinate-co-L-lactate) (PBSL) and poly(butylene succinate-co-ecaprolactone) (PBSC) and addition of compatibilizer such as lysine triisocyanate (LTI) and polyethylene oxide-polypropylene oxide-polyethylene oxide (PEO-PPOPEO) triblock copolymer. Preparation of PLLA based scaffold was also been considered in the present study. In the first series, the effects of blend composition (100/0, 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, 50/50, 25/75 and 0/100 wt%) on the morphological, mechanical and thermal properties of PLLA/PCL, PLLA/PBSL, and PLLA/PBSC blends were carried out. It is found that the bending properties decreased with increasing PCL or PBSL or PBSC contents. This was traced by the poor interfacial adhesion between PLLA and PCL or PBSL or PBSC as observed in the phase separation morphology. The second series were on the effects of LTI content on the properties of PLLA/PCL blends. The mechanical properties of the PLLA/PCL blends were observed to increase with the presence of LTI with optimum properties shown at LTI loading of 5phr. This was attributed to the interaction between isocyanate group of LTI and OH group of both PLLA and PCL. The compatibilizing effects of LTI content on the PLLA/PCL blends were proven by moderate improvement in the fracture toughness and confirmed by the ductile morphology as observed by the FESEM. The fractured energy values of the PLLA/PCL blends increased with the increasing of LTI contents. The optimum toughening effect was observed in PLLA/PCL (50/50) blend compatibilized with LTI at 5phr. In the third series, the effects of addition of PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymer contents (0.5, 1 and 2phr) into PLLA/PCL (70/30 wt%) were carried out. The addition of the copolymer into the PLLA/PCL improved its fracture toughness. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and melting temperature (Tm) of PLLA and PCL shifted slightly closer together, indicating that the blend miscibility slightly increased and hence increased mode I fracture properties. In addition, solid-liquid phase separation and freeze-drying techniques (SPS-FD) is able to be used in preparing highly porous scaffolds with higher compression property. With this fabrication technique, highly porous and interconnected PLLA scaffolds were successfully fabricated, suggesting that PLLA concentration below 10 wt% exhibits great potential for tissue engineering applications.
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Keywords
Poly(L-Lactic Acid) (Plla) Blends , And Plla Scaffold
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