**Fracture Mechanisms of Biodegradable PLA and PLA/PCL Blends**

Mitsugu Todo1 and Tetsuo Takayama2

*1Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University 2Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Yamagata University Japan* 

#### **1. Introduction**

374 Biomaterials – Physics and Chemistry

Yashima, M., Sakai, A. , Kamiyama, T., Hoshikawa, A., 2003. *J. Solid State Chemistry* 175,

Wang, C. X., Zhou, X., Wang, M. 2004. *Materials Characterization* 52, 301.

272.

Poly (lactic acid) (PLA), made from natural resources such as starch of plants, is one of typical biodegradable thermoplastic polymers and has extensively been used in medical fields such as orthopedics, neurosurgery and oral surgery as bone fixation devices mainly due to biocompatibility and bioabsorbability (Higashi et al., 1986; Ikada et al., 1996; Middleton & Tipton, 2000; Mohanty, 2000). Its importance has led to many studies on its mechanical properties and fracture behavior which found that the mode I fracture behavior of PLA is relatively brittle in nature (Todo et al., 2002; Park et al., 2004, 2005, 2006). Therefore, blending with a ductile biodegradable and bioabsorbable polymer such as poly (ε-caprolacton) (PCL) has been adopted to improve the fracture energy of brittle PLA (Broz et al., 2003; Dell'Erba et al., 2001; Chen et al., 2003; Todo et al., 2007; Tsuji & Ikada, 1996, 1998; Tsuji & Ishizuka, 2001; Tsuji et al., 2003); however, it was also found that phase separation originated by immiscibility of PLA and PCL tends to degrade the mechanical properties of PLA/PCL blends (Todo et al., 2007). It has recently been found that such phase separation can dramatically be improved by using an isocyanate group, lysine tri-isocyanate (LTI) (Takayama et al., 2006; Takayama & Todo, 2006; Harada et al., 2007, 2008), and the fracture properties of PLA/PCL/LTI are much higher than those of PLA/PCL.

In this chapter, firstly the fracture behavior and micromechanism of pure PLA are summarized (Park et al., 2004, 2005, 2006; Todo et al., 2002). Effects of crystallization behavior and loading-rate on the mode I fracture behavior are discussed. Effect of unidirectional drawing on the fracture energy is also presented as one of the effective ways to improve the brittleness of PLA (Todo, 2007). Secondly, the fracture behavior of PLA/PCL blends is discussed on the basis of the relationship between the microstructure and the fracture property (Todo et al., 2007b). In the third section, improvement of microstructural morphology of PLA/PCL by using LTI is discussed (Takayama et al., 2006; Takayama & Todo, 2006; Todo & Takayama, 2007; Todo et al., 2007a). It has been found that addition of LTI effectively improves the phase morphology of PLA/PCL, resulting in dramatic improvement of fracture energy. Effects of annealing on the mechanical properties of PLA/PCL/LTI blend are discussed in the last section (Takayama et al., 2011). It has been found that a thermal annealing process can effectively improve the mechanical properties of the polymer blend, as a result of strengthened structures due to crystallization of PLA.

Fracture Mechanisms of Biodegradable PLA and PLA/PCL Blends 377

**0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Crystallinity (%)**

Fig. 2. Dependence of crystallinity on the critical energy release rate under a quasi-static and

(a) *Xc*=2.7%, static (b) *Xc*=2.7%, impact

(c) *Xc*=55.8%, static (d) *Xc*=55.8%, impact

Fig.4 shows FE-SEM micrographs of the fracture surfaces of the PLA samples. For the amorphous sample tested at the static rate, the fracture surface exhibits deep concavities and hackles due to multiple craze formation (Fig.4(a)). The fracture surfaces of the crystallized samples (Fig.4(c)) appears to be smoother than the amorphous one, corresponding to the decrease of the toughness values. The impact fracture surface of the amorphous sample (Fig.4(b)) is obviously smoother than the static one, corresponding to the decrease of *GIC*. It is noted that drawing fibrils are also observed on the impact fracture surface, suggesting that effect of high strain-rate exists. Roughness of the impact fracture surface appears to increase with increase of crystallinity comparing the surfaces shown in Figs.4(b) and (d). For the impact surface of the highly crystallized sample (Fig.4(d)), relatively fine roughness

Quasi-static

Impact

Fig. 3. Polarized micrographs of crack growth behavior.

exists suggesting the increase of *GIC* as crystallinity increases.

an impact loading conditions.
