Thermal behavior and light transmittance of PLLA nucleated using strontium phenylmalonate

Adding functional additives in the poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) matrix to develop high-performance modified biodegradable polymers is of great interest. Therefore, in this work, strontium phenylmalonate (SrPA), as an organic–inorganic hybrid material, was prepared through a neutralization reaction to evaluate its influence on the crystallization behavior, melting behavior, thermal stability and light transmittance of PLLA. The non-isothermal crystallization behavior, for all PLLA/SrPA samples, showed that the SrPA loading and variations in cooling rate significantly influenced the non-isothermal crystallization of PLLA; 5 wt% SrPA exhibited the best crystallization-accelerating capability for PLLA. However, the effects of the set final melt temperature used on the non-isothermal crystallization were negligible, resulting from the minimal difference in solubility of SrPA in the PLLA matrix in the temperature range of 170–210°C. The results from X-ray diffraction measurements and melting behavior further demonstrated the crystallization-accelerating role of SrPA for PLLA. Thermal stability measurements indicated that the incorporation of SrPA did not change the thermal decomposition behavior of PLLA, but the onset decomposition temperature decreased with increasing SrPA concentration. The addition of SrPA led to a significant decrease in light transmittance.