Comparison of Mechanical Properties of Polylactic Acid with The Addition of Triacetine and Diethylene Glycol Dibenzoate After Annealing 80⁰C and 100⁰C.

This research aims to study the effect of the addition of diethylene glycol dibenzoate (DEDB) and triacetine as plasticizers on the mechanical properties of polylactic acid (PLA) with different annealing temperature. PLA and plasticizer were mixed using dichloromethane as the solven at a plasticer content of 10wt persen, followed by drying and hot pressing into dogbone sheet. Dogbone sheet were then heat treated at two different temperatures, 80 oC and 100 oC, for 30 minutes to recrystallize the PLA structure. Mechanical properties were observed by SEM and UTM test. Molecular behavior observed by FTIR test and the degree of crystallinity of PLA were observed by DSC test. As a result, the fracture morphology shows the addition of plasticizers to make the PLA a resilient material. There are possible existence of molecular interactions between the PLA plasticizer. Triacetine further improve elongation compared with diethylene glycol dibenzoate. And conversely diethylene glycol dibenzoate further improve the crystallinity PLA compared with triacetine. DSC measurements also showed the crystallinity of PLA increased better within the addition of DEDB. Proceeding Seminar Nasional Metalurgi dan Material VII, P: 85-90 ISBN: 978-602-9056-88-4