Preparation and oil absorption performance of biodegradable PCL/PLA open-cell foam material

doi:10.11949/0438-1157.20200627

Abstract

Abstract:

In this paper, various polycaprolactone/polylactide (PCL/PLA) blends with different dispersed phase morphologies were melt blended based on PCL matrix. Supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂) was used as physical blowing agent to fabricate porous PCL/PLA samples with different expansion ratio and open-cell content by microcellular batch foaming process. According to the solubility experiment of a cube sample with a side length of 3 mm, it is found that CO₂ has reached a saturated adsorption state in PCL after 100 min. The foam tests showed that with the increase of PLA contents, the pore size was decreased, the pore density was increased, and the pore distribution was more uniform. With the foaming temperature increased by 6℃, the pore size increased by 50%,the expansion ratio increased by 38% and the open-cell content decreased by 20%. PCL/PLA open-cell material has obvious lipophilic and hydrophobic properties. The higher the foaming ratio, the better the hydrophobicity properties. The oil absorption experiments for peanut oil and silicone oil showed that the oil absorption rate of foamed samples was proportional to the overall expansion ratio and open-cell content. In addition, the actual oil absorption was higher than calculated theoretical values. After 10 cycles of oil absorption test, the oil absorption of porous PCL/PLA samples was only reduced by 8.5%, and the oil absorption had little relationship with the oil??s intrinsic viscosity.

Key words: supercritical carbon dioxide, polycaprolactone, foaming, open-cell, oil absorption

摘要：

以聚己内酯（PCL）为基体，添加不同含量聚乳酸（PLA）熔融共混制备具有不同分散相形态的PCL/PLA共混物，利用超临界二氧化碳（scCO₂）微孔发泡工艺制备不同发泡倍率和开孔率的PCL/PLA多孔材料用于吸油应用。针对边长3 mm正方体样品溶解度实验发现100 min后CO₂在PCL中已达到饱和吸附状态。PLA分散相含量的增加显著增大了PCL/PLA共混物泡孔密度，并使共混泡孔尺寸减小且分布更加均匀；发泡温度升高6℃，泡孔尺寸增大50%，发泡倍率增大38%，开孔率减小了20%。PCL/PLA开孔材料具有明显的亲油疏水性，发泡倍率越高，疏水性越好；针对花生油和硅油的吸油实验发现材料吸油率与发泡倍率和开孔率整体呈正比，实际吸油量高于理论计算值，10次循环吸油测试后样品吸油率仅降低8.5%，材料吸油量与油品特性黏度关系不大。

关键词: 超临界二氧化碳, 聚己内酯, 发泡, 开孔, 吸油

CLC Number:

TQ 028.8

LI Zihui,JIANG Jing,JIN Zhangyong,CAI Bozhi,CAO Yongjun,LI Qian. Preparation and oil absorption performance of biodegradable PCL/PLA open-cell foam material[J]. CIESC Journal, 2020, 71(12): 5842-5853.

李子辉,蒋晶,金章勇,蔡泊志,曹永俊,李倩. 生物可降解PCL/PLA开孔发泡材料制备及吸油性能[J]. 化工学报, 2020, 71(12): 5842-5853.

Figures/Tables 12

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of batch foaming device

Fig.2 Phase morphologies of various PCL/PLA blends

Fig.3 Dynamic storage modulus (G′) (a) and complex viscosity (η*) (b) for PCL/PLA blends from dynamic frequency sweep

Fig.4 Desorption CO2 from neat PCL(a), PCL/PLA(9/1) (b), PCL/PLA(7/3) (c) after being fully saturated at 25℃, 12.41 MPa( linear fit line is drawn to show the extrapolated value at t=0) and CO2 uptake as a function of time at various PCL/PLA blends

Fig.5 Cell morphologies of PCL/PLA blends with various components

Fig.6 Cell diameter/apparent density (a) and expansion ratio/open-cell content (b) changes with PLA content

Fig.7 Cell morphologies of PCL/PLA(7/3) under different foam temperature

Fig.8 Cell diameter/apparent density (a) and expansion ratio/open-cell content (b) changes with the foaming temperature

Fig.9 Water contact angle results of foamed samples (a) and test for hydrophobic and lipophilic property of water (b), peanut oil (c), silicone oil (d)

Fig.10 Test of active oil absorption property for solid sample (a) and foamed sample (b)

Fig.11 Cyclic oil absorption process (a), peanut oil (b) and silicone oil (c) sorption after 10 cycles

Fig.12 Curves of oil absorption against foaming expansion ratio (a) and open-cell content (b) for foamed samples

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