Enhancement in Thermal Stability of Polyoxymethylene (POM)-Based Biopolymer Blend Materials

Abstract

In this study, we demonstrate the enhancement in thermal stability of polyoxymethylene (POM)-based biopolymer blend materials. Polyoxymethylene (POM)/Polylactic acid (PLA) blends have been used as alternative biopolymer materials for supporting environmental problems with thermal stability feature. The effects on POM biopolymer blend materials with a controlled PLA amount in their compositions under various injection conditions, were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. The POM/PLA biopolymer blend materials showed POM phase acted as a homogeneous nucleating site for increasing PLA crystallization, which improves storage modulus of the blend materials. The decomposition temperatures of POM/PLA biopolymer blends tend to shift around 30 ˚ C - 50 ˚ C lower compared to the decomposition temperatures of PLA. Thus, the decomposition temperature behavior of POM/PLA blends seems to be closer to POM. The suitable ratio in POM70/PLA30 resulted in the high strength of the blend materials. The POM/PLA biopolymer blend material was tested at various injection speeds and good miscibility was obtained at an injection speed of 100 mm/s. This enhancement of thermal stability in POM/PLA blend materials should be useful in the development of high-performance bio-based thermoplastic materials.