Authors: Ravibabu Valapa Sameer Hussain Parmeswar Krishnan Iyer G Pugazhenthi Vimal Katiyar
Publish Date: 2015/08/13
Volume: 22, Issue: 9, Pages: 175-
Abstract
In present study the effect of graphene GR on crystallization and thermal degradation kinetic behavior of polylactic acid PLA was investigated The non isothermal cold crystallization kinetic study for PLAGR nanocomposites was carried out using differential scanning calorimetry at different heating rates of 25 5 75 and 10 °C/min The obtained kinetic data were analyzed using crystallization kinetic models such as Avrami and Tobin methods The decreasing trend obtained in the Avrami as well as Tobin exponent n and n T respectively with respect to neat PLA revealed the nucleating effect of graphene Thermal degradation behavior of both PLA and PLAGR nanocomposites was also analyzed by Kissinger method The increasing trend in the activation energy with respect to GR loading was observed as compared to neat PLA This is an indication of improvement in the thermal stability of PLA with an increase in the GR loading Polarized optical microscopy POM was used to observe the growth of spherulites in the PLA and PLAGR nanocomposites With respect to addition of GR in the PLA matrix reduction in the nucleation induction time and an increment in the number of nucleation sites were reflected in the POM analysisThe authors sincerely thank the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers Government of India funded Center of Excellence for Sustainable Polymers at IIT Guwahati for research facilities to perform this research work
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