Does magnesium compromise the high temperature processability of novel biodegradable and bioresorbables PLLA/Mg composites?

Abstract

This paper addresses the influence of magnesium on melting behaviour and thermal stability of novel bioresorbable PLLA/Mg composites as a way to investigate their processability by conventional techniques, which likely will require a melt process at high temperature to mould the material by using a compression, extrusion or injection stage. For this purpose, and to avoid any high temperature step before analysis, films of PLLA loaded with magnesium particles of different sizes and volume fraction were prepared by solvent casting. DSC, modulated DSC and thermogravimetry analysis demonstrate that although thermal stability of PLLA is reduced, the temperature window for processing the PLLA/Mg composites by conventional thermoplastic routes is wide enough. Moreover, magnesium particles do not alter the crystallization behaviour of the polymer from the melt, which allows further annealing treatments to optimize the crystallinity in terms of the required combination of mechanical properties and degradation rate. Copyright: © 2014 CSIC.