Journal of Materials Science, Vol.47, No.3, 1339-1347, 2012
Morphology and rheology of poly(L-lactide)/polystyrene blends filled with silica nanoparticles
The successful development of co-continuous structure from poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) blends by melt mixing with lower PLLA content is highly desired in preparing macroporous biomaterials. However, the low viscosity of PLLA makes it difficult to prepare co-continuous PLLA blends at low PLLA concentration. In this study, hydrophilic silica nanoparticle is adopted to control the morphology of co-continuous polystyrene (PS)/PLLA blends. The influence of nanoparticle concentration on the co-continuity intervals and rheological properties of PS/PLLA blends are examined. The morphological stability of blends against melt annealing is also determined and discussed with a conceptual coarsening model for co-continuous structure. The results demonstrate that the incorporation of silica nanoparticles into PS/PLLA blends can be used to prepare macroporous PLLA structure with controllable pore size at lower PLLA content.