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Published on: October 17, 2016
Constructing Bone-Mimicking High-Performance Structured Poly(lactic acid) by an Elongational Flow Field and Facile
Yue He1, Wen-Hua Xu1, He Zhang1
1The National Engineering Research Center of Novel Equipment for Polymer Processing; The Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering, Ministry of Education; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Technique and Equipment for Macromolecular Advanced Manufacturing; School of Mechanical & Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510640, P. R. China.
This study developed bone-mimicking structured poly(lactic acid) (PLA) using a novel industrial-scale method. The resulting material exhibits exceptional toughness, strength, and heat resistance, overcoming PLA
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Polymer Science
- Biomaterials Engineering
Background:
- Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a promising biodegradable polymer but faces limitations in toughness, ductility, and heat resistance for large-scale applications.
- Achieving simultaneous improvements in these properties for PLA remains a significant challenge.
- Natural materials often exhibit superior mechanical properties due to hierarchical structures, but replicating these in synthetic materials is difficult.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an industrial-scale method for manufacturing PLA with enhanced toughness, ductility, strength, and heat distortion resistance.
- To create a bone-mimicking hierarchical structure in PLA to improve its mechanical performance.
- To investigate the potential of this structured PLA for structural and bio-engineering applications.
Main Methods:
- An innovative method involving an intensive, continuous elongational flow field and a facile annealing process was employed.
- Hierarchical architectures were constructed using in situ formed oriented thermoplastic poly(ether)urethane nanofibers (TNFs) as "collagen fibers" and staggered PLA lamellae as "hydroxyapatite (HA) nanocrystals".
- A tenacious interface was engineered to act as a "soft protein" adhesive layer.
Main Results:
- The developed bone-mimicking structured PLA exhibits unique hierarchical architectures, including interlocked 3D network lamellae and extended-chain lamellae.
- The material achieved super toughness (90.3 KJ/m²), high stiffness (2.15 GPa), balanced strength (52.6 MPa), and notable heat distortion resistance (stable at 163 °C for 1 hour).
- These properties were simultaneously enhanced, overcoming previous limitations of PLA.
Conclusions:
- The novel industrial-scale fabrication method successfully created bone-mimicking structured PLA with superior and balanced mechanical properties.
- The unique hierarchical architecture is key to achieving enhanced toughness, ductility, strength, and heat resistance.
- The structured PLA holds immense potential for applications in structural materials and bio-engineering, such as artificial bones and tissue scaffolds.
