Rheological and mechanical behavior of non‐spherical poly(lactic acid) particles embedded poly(butylene adipate‐co‐terephthalate) blend

Abstract In this study, the poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/poly(butylene adipate‐co‐terephthalate)(PBAT) blend is investigated to improve rheological and mechanical performances of PBAT based on rheological, mechanical, and thermal behavior analyses. The multi‐step mixing method is developed to fabricate the blend with non‐spherical morphology. In the multi‐step mixing method, blends with a wide composition range (25/75–75/25) are mixed with additional PBAT at a mixing temperature between the melting temperatures of PBAT and PLA to produce the PBAT blend embedded with non‐spherical PLA particles (10 wt%). The embedding of non‐spherical PLA particles in PBAT increases the resistance against deformation, resulting in strain hardening behavior and an increase in the yield strength as well as the tear resistance of the PBAT. The presence of stiff PLA particles enhances the crystallization behavior …