Toughening PLA via Diisocyanate-Induced Dynamic Vulcanization of Carboxylated Oleic Acid: Role of Crosslinked Network Topology

Diisocyanate-induced dynamic vulcanization of difunctional fatty acids has emerged as a universal strategy to efficiently improve the impact resistance of polylactic acid (PLA). However, how the crosslinked network topology of the in situ formed polyamide elastomer (COPA) affects its toughening efficacy on PLA remains unknown. Here, we synthesized two carboxylated fatty acids with distinct molecular architectures (TCOA and NCOA) from technical-grade and high-purity oleic acids via UV-initiated thiol-ene click chemistry. These two diacids, along with tetradecanedioic acid (TA) without a dangling chain, were dynamically vulcanized with hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) to toughen PLA. By varying NCO/COOH molar ratios between HDI and TCOA, their effects on gel content, crosslinking density, phase morphology, and mechanical properties of resulting blends were systematically investigated. With increasing the ratio, both gel content and interfacial adhesion with PLA in the blends were enhanced, accompanied by the transformation of phase structure from “sea-island” morphology to a partially or fully co-continuous one. At a molar ratio of 1.8:1, the notched impact strength value of the blend reached 86.5 kJ/m2. By substituting TCOA with high-purity NCOA or TA, comparable gel content and interfacial compatibilization level, and co-continuous morphologies were achieved. Notably, NCOA yielded a PLA blend with a remarkably higher impact toughness (131.0 kJ/m2). The linear chain structure of TA led to a higher crosslinking density of the formed TAPA domains, which unfavorably suppressed their cavitation during impact fracture and thus resulted in an inferior impact strength (7.0 kJ/m2). These findings provide valuable insights into the toughening mechanism of PLA via dynamic vulcanization of monomers.