Refractive Index Engineering as a Novel Strategy toward Highly Transparent and Tough Sustainable Polymer Blends

Si-Ting Sun; Hang Wang; Dong Huang; Ying-Li Ding; Yang Zhang; Dong-Po Song; Kun-Yu Zhang; Li Pan; Yue-Sheng Li

doi:10.1007/s10118-020-2439-1

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Refractive Index Engineering as a Novel Strategy toward Highly Transparent and Tough Sustainable Polymer Blends

ARTICLE | Updated：2020-06-22

- Refractive Index Engineering as a Novel Strategy toward Highly Transparent and Tough Sustainable Polymer Blends
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 38, Issue 12, Pages: 1335-1344(2020)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
  b.Department of Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
  c.Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
  d.Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin 300072, China
- Author bio：
  
  kyzhang@tju.edu.cn (K.Y.Z.)
  lilypan@tju.edu.cn (L.P.)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-020-2439-1
  CLC：
- Received：28 February 2020，
  
  Revised：2020-3-26，
  
  Accepted：06 April 2020，
  
  Online First：22 June 2020，
  
  Published：10 September 2020
- Accepted：
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Sun, S. T.; Wang, H.; Huang, D.; Ding, Y. L.; Zhang, Y.; Song, D. P.; Zhang, K. Y.; Pan, L.; Li, Y. S. Refractive index engineering as a novel strategy toward highly transparent and tough sustainable polymer blends. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2020, 38, 1335–1344

Si-Ting Sun, Hang Wang, Dong Huang, et al. Refractive Index Engineering as a Novel Strategy toward Highly Transparent and Tough Sustainable Polymer Blends[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2020, 38(12): 1335-1344.
Sun, S. T.; Wang, H.; Huang, D.; Ding, Y. L.; Zhang, Y.; Song, D. P.; Zhang, K. Y.; Pan, L.; Li, Y. S. Refractive index engineering as a novel strategy toward highly transparent and tough sustainable polymer blends. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2020, 38, 1335–1344 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-020-2439-1.

Si-Ting Sun, Hang Wang, Dong Huang, et al. Refractive Index Engineering as a Novel Strategy toward Highly Transparent and Tough Sustainable Polymer Blends[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2020, 38(12): 1335-1344. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-020-2439-1.

摘要

Abstract

High transparency and toughness are prerequisites for sustainable polymers if they are to find wide application as alternatives to petroleum-based polymers. However

the utility of sustainable polymers such as commercially available polylactide (PLA) is limited by their inherent brittleness and high cost. Unfortunately

toughening PLA-based materials

via

cost-effective blending strategies without sacrificing transparency remains a challenge. Herein

we report a novel strategy involving active refractive index matching for creation of highly transparent and tough PLA blends. Specifically

we engineered the refractive index of a promising renewable poly(epichlorohydrin-

-ethylene oxide) elastomer by introducing polar ionic moieties

via

a simple chemical method

and we blended the resulting ionomers with PLA. The best blend showed an impact strength of

80 kJ/m

an elongation at break of 400%

and high transparency (90%). These characteristics are of great importance for potential applications such as packaging. Our strategy offers a versatile new way to prepare high-performance sustainable polymer materials with excellent transparency.

关键词

Keywords

references

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