An investigation of crystallization and rheological behaviors of PLA/HDPE/Nano-CaCO3 composites by experimental design

Nowadays, the development of products from renewable raw material has been an important subject of interest for a great number of researchers. Poly(lactic acid) is versatile polymer, synthesized from renewable resources, biodegradable and biocompatible and that has been considered as stronger candidate to replace fossil-based polymers in many application. However, the PLA still has some shortcomings to be solved, such as low thermal resistance, rate crystallization, impact resistance and gas barrier properties. Thus, adding nanofiller can be an interesting method to extend and to improve the PLA properties. The aim of this work is to evaluate the rheological and thermal properties of composites based on PLA/nano-CaCO3/HDPE by using a design of experiments (DOE)-2n Factorial, with three center points. Three factors were studied: HDPE/nano-CaCO3 masterbatch content, temperature and mixer speed. All PLA/Nano-CaCO3/HDPE experiments were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), torque rheometr...