writer：Chen, Jianxiang(#)，Lu, Liangliang，Wu, Defeng，Yuan, Lijuan，Zhang, Ming，Hua, Jingjing，Xu, Jia
keywords：Electrospun blend fibers, Fiber reinforcements, Green composite, Poly(ε-caprolactone), Polylactide
source：期刊
specific source：Acs Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Issue time：2014年
As two typical aliphatic polyesters, biodegradable poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and polylactide (PLA) show quite different mechanical properties. Compounding them together is therefore an interesting topic on the fabrication of biomaterials with tailorable properties. The composite technology was used in this work to prepare a new PCL/PLA system, the green PCL composites reinforced with the electrospun PLA fibers. The minor PCL was then introduced into the PLA fibers to improve the reinforcing effect further. The results reveal that PLA can act as good reinforcement to PCL in the way of continuous fibers because the PCL composites reinforced with the PLA fiber mats show far higher strength and modulus than those of neat PCL and the PCL/PLA blend samples prepared by melt mixing. In comparison with the neat PLA fibers, the PLA/PCL blend fibers have a better reinforcing effect to PCL. The presence of a minor PCL component in the electrospun blend fibers improves the affinity between the fibers and PCL matrix by reducing fiber–matrix interfacial tension and enhances interfacial adhesion via mutual fusion between the fiber surface PCL phase and matrix PCL during hot compression. Both the mechanical properties and the viscoelastic responses of the composites are highly dependent on the fiber contents and PLA/PCL ratios of the blend fibers. The presence of superfluous fiber-contained PCL has no more contribution to affinity improvement and could even decrease the reinforcing effect because of degraded fiber strength. Thus, the PLA/PCL weight ratio of the blend fibers is vital to the final properties of the fiber-reinforced PCL green composites.