Effect of electrospun ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) fibres on the structure, morphology, and properties of poly(lactic acid) (PLA)

The effect of ethylene content and of the concentration of the solution used for electrospinning on the morphology of electrospun poly ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) fibre was studied. Also, poly(lactic acid) (PLA) filled with electrospun EVOH fibres was investigated. Good interfacial adhesion between PLA and EVOH fibres was obtained with smaller diameter fibres. The effect of electrospun fibres resulted in disrupted lamellar morphology and also decreased the degree of crystallinity related to the semicrystalline framework. Surface roughness was calculated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Surface roughness increased with the increase in fibre diameters. The rheology experiments revealed that electrospun EVOH fibres enhance the storage modulus of PLA composites while having low crystallinity. EVOH fibres showed the capacity of tuning the degradation behaviour. The good interfacial morphology between PLA and smaller diameter fibres slowed down the degradation rate, whereas composites with larger diameter fibres, due to poor interfacial adhesion showed faster degradation rate than the other compositions, because large EVOH fibres afford channels by which NaOH solution can easily penetrate throughout the composite material. The incorporation of EVOH fibres into PLA matrix allowed obtaining materials with increased storage modulus and also showed viability to tune the degradation behaviour of PLA based products.