Conformation Variation Induced Crystallization Enhancement of Poly(l-lactic acid) by Gluconic Derivatives
writer:Xinyi Zheng, Hao Luo, Shipeng Chen, Baohao Zhang, Bin Sun, Mei-Fang Zhu, Bao Zhang,* Xiang-Kui Ren*
keywords:Crystallization, Poly(l-lactic acid)
source:期刊
specific source:Crystal Growth & Design
Issue time:2020年
A series of d-gluconic acetal derivatives (denoted as G-C18(OH), G-C18,G-C16(OH)3, and G-C14, respectively) were designed and synthesized as novel poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) nucleators. Their nucleation effects and nucleation mechanisms were then elucidated by different experimental techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry, polarized optical microscopy, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The experimental results reveal that d-gluconic acetal molecules can promote PLLA to form a semi-ordered structure via hydrogen bonding as a template to induce faster nucleation of PLLA. As a result, the crystallization rate and crystallinity of PLLA can be significantly enhanced. Moreover, the proportion of the α phase and the α′ phase can also be regulated by these novel nucleators, which can enhance the mechanical properties of PLLA significantly. The high nucleation efficiency and the phase structure regulation ability of these d-gluconic acetal derivatives make them promising as a new generation of nucleators for PLLA.