Peroxide-induced dynamic vulcanization provides an effective route for improving the mechanical properties of
PLA/NR blends, especially the toughness.
The sharp brittleductile transition occurred at the ratio of PLA/NR ¼ 65/35 in the blend, which showed impact strength of 58.3 kJ/m2, approximately 21 times that of the neat PLA.
It appeared that the crystallization of PLA has no contribution to the increase in toughness of the dynamically vulcanized blends.
FTIR analysis suggested that the PLA-NR grafts were increased with increasing NR content, indicating the reactive
compatibilization at the PLA/NR interfaces.
Morphology analysis demonstrated that the NR phase in D65/35 formed a continuous “net-like” structure and exhibited good interfacial adhesion with the PLA phase.