An Experimental Study on the Thermal Properties and Electrical Properties of Polylactide Doped with Nano Aluminium Oxide and Nano Cupric Oxide

The research on polylactide has been trending over the past 10 years as it is a versatile biopolymer which finds applications in food packaging and medical industries. In this research, nano aluminium oxide and nano cupric oxide have been impregnated into polylactide matrix using sonication and the nano composite thin films were prepared using solution casting technique. The thermal characterization of the neat and doped polymer films were conducted using thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. the addition of nano aluminium oxide and nano cupric oxide increased the glass transition temperature and melting temperature of the samples in comparison with neat polylactide. Degree of crystallinity of all the doped samples increased with respect to the neat sample except for the sample doped with 1 mg nano aluminium oxide. The I–V characterization of the neat and doped samples revealed that addition of the nano powders reduced the resistivity of PLA by 35–45%. These results recommend the use of polylactide doped with nano aluminium oxide and nano cupric oxide as a potential semiconducting polymeric materials.