Mechanical Toughening of Telechelic Copolymer to Poly(lactic acid) Blends: Perspectives of Microstructural Comparison and Molecular Simulation

Jia-Cheng Hong; Yi-Wen Tao; Ze-Chuan Yu; Ge Zhu; Ning Lin

doi:10.1007/s10118-026-3808-1

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Mechanical Toughening of Telechelic Copolymer to Poly(lactic acid) Blends: Perspectives of Microstructural Comparison and Molecular Simulation

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2026-09-29

- Mechanical Toughening of Telechelic Copolymer to Poly(lactic acid) Blends: Perspectives of Microstructural Comparison and Molecular Simulation
- Mechanical Toughening of Telechelic Copolymer to Poly(lactic acid) Blends: Perspectives of Microstructural Comparison and Molecular Simulation
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science 2026年44卷页码：1-14
- Affiliations：
  
  a.School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Life Sciences, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
  b.School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
- Author bio：
  
  ninglin.whut@gmail.com, ninglin@whut.edu.cn.
- Funds：
  
  This work was financially supported by the Wuhan Key Research and Development Program (No. 2024020702030117).;The authors declare no interest conflict.Electronic supplementary information (ESI) is available free of charge in the online version of this article at http://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3808-1.The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-026-3808-1
  中图分类号：
- 收稿：2026-06-21，
  
  录用：2026-07-07，
  
  网络首发：2026-09-29，
  
  纸质出版：2026-08
- Accepted：
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Hong, J. C.; Tao, Y. W.; Yu, Z. C.; Zhu, G.; Lin, N. Mechanical toughening of telechelic copolymer to poly(lactic acid) blends: perspectives of microstructural comparison and molecular simulation. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3808-1

Jia-Cheng Hong, Yi-Wen Tao, Ze-Chuan Yu, et al. Mechanical Toughening of Telechelic Copolymer to Poly(lactic acid) Blends: Perspectives of Microstructural Comparison and Molecular Simulation[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-14.
Hong, J. C.; Tao, Y. W.; Yu, Z. C.; Zhu, G.; Lin, N. Mechanical toughening of telechelic copolymer to poly(lactic acid) blends: perspectives of microstructural comparison and molecular simulation. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3808-1 DOI：

Jia-Cheng Hong, Yi-Wen Tao, Ze-Chuan Yu, et al. Mechanical Toughening of Telechelic Copolymer to Poly(lactic acid) Blends: Perspectives of Microstructural Comparison and Molecular Simulation[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 441-14. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3808-1.

摘要

Abstract

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a renewable polyester material with excellent properties

such as processability

biocompatibility

and biodegradability

and is widely used in packaging and medical applications. However

neat PLA has the performance limitations of high brittleness and poor toughness

strongly restricting its practical use. In this study

three poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based telechelic polymers were synthesized with different microstructures: linear epoxidized poly(ethylene glycol) (linear EPEG)

4-arm star-shaped epoxidized poly(ethylene glycol) (4A-EPEG)

and 4-arm star-shaped poly(lactic acid-glycolic acid)-epoxidized polyethylene glycol (4A-PLGA-EPEG). These telechelic polymers that take the reactive epoxy groups on the terminals of the chains endowed the reactive compounding with the PLA matrix to achieve the mechanical enhancement of the blends. At a low loading level (3 wt%)

the introduction of 4A-PLGA-EPEG significantly improved the toughness of the PLA-based blends with a substantial i

ncrease in elongation at break of 107.43% compared to only 3.84% for the neat PLA material. In contrast to linear EPEG and 4A-EPEG

the 4A-PLGA-EPEG copolymer served as a mechanical toughening agent because of its enhanced compatibility and the formation of topological entanglements with the polymeric matrix in the blends. The calculation of the efficiency factor (

) quantified the improvement in the microstructure stability and stress transfer efficiency of blends derived from the chain entanglements of the added copolymer

and molecular simulations further confirmed the formation of a micro-topological structure by reactive compounding in PLA-based blends.

关键词

Keywords

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