Effect of Star-shaped chain architectures on the polylactide stereocomplex crystallization behaviors

Linear and star-shaped polylactides (PLA) with similar molecular weights of each arm are synthesized via ring-opening polymerization of LA with 3-butyn-l-ol and pentaerythritol as initiators,respectively.By solution blending of equivalent mass of poly(L-lactic acid)s (PLLAs) and poly(D-lactic acid)s (PDLAs),perfect PLA stereocomplexes (scPLAs) are prepared and confirmed by WAXD and FTIR analysis.Effect of chain architectures on stereocomplex crystallization is investigated by studying the non-isothermal and isothermal crystallization of linear and star-shaped polylactide stereocomplexes.In dynamic DSC and POM test,star-shaped PLLA (4sPLLA)/PDLA and PLLA/star-shaped PDLA (4sPDLA) stereocomplexes reach rapid crystallization and higher crystallinity due to larger spherulite density of star-shaped chain and excellent chain mobility of linear chain.In isothermal crystallization test,much faster crystallization and less crystallization half-time is obtained with the increase of star-shaped chain.Meanwhile,4sPLLA/PDLA and PLLA/4sPDLA are found to have the highest crystallinity,suggesting limitation of too much star-shaped chain for 4sPLLA/4sPDLA and restriction of linear chain in nucleation capacity for PLLA/PDLA.The results reveal that star-shaped chain has an important influence on the crystallization of scPLAs.