Mechanism of stereocomplexation of PLA physical blends from the melt at different residence times in the melt.

Sterecomplex PLA is a promising biobased polymer that reduces the carbon footprint and generates biodegradable polymers with physical properties comparable to those of their polyolefin counterparts. However, despite the efforts, there is no consensus yet about the mechanism of crystallisation of high molecular PLA enantiomeric blends in the stereocomplex phase due to the microphase separation that occurs at the melt. Recent DSC experiments suggest that microphase separation can evolve in the melt, as a higher degree of stereocomplex is obtained, minimising the competing alpha phase content. Simultaneously, SAXS-WAXS experiments will be carried out during different thermal protocols (different cooling rates/resident times in the melt) to reveal the crystallisation mechanism in situ, in particular, to monitor the crystallisation mechanism to unmask the competing crystallisation between alpha and stereocomplex phase.