Impact of Samarium Acetylacetonate Catalyst on the Compatibilization of Poly(lactic acid)/Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) Blends: Thermomechanical, Chemical, and Viscoelastic Characterizations

Abstract: In this work, interchange reactions between poly(lactic acid) and poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) is catalyzed by adding samarium acetylacetonate aiming to create a catalytic transesterification reaction and compatibilization between polymer blends. The impact of the samarium acetylacetonate content on transesterification reactions was studied. The FTIR analysis shows that all exposed samples exhibited an increase in the absorption of the carbonyl region with augmentation of vinyl acetate and catalyst content. The results of torque analysis show that the mixing torque reduces with increasing the content of the catalyst due to the contribution of its plasticizing effect in reducing of the mixture viscosity and the significant structural changes. DSC analysis illustrates that the glass transition temperature values of both polymers were unaffected after blending indicating their immiscibility. However, during melt mixing of polymers with catalyst, decrease of the glass transition, crystallization and melting temperatures are observed. The mechanical performance of blend is enhanced with the addition of catalyst.