IEEJ Transactions on Fundamentals and Materials
Online ISSN : 1347-5533
Print ISSN : 0385-4205
ISSN-L : 0385-4205
Special Issue Paper
Mechanical and Electrical Characteristics of Poly-Lactic Acid which Added Plasticizer
Katsuyoshi ShinyamaShigetaka Fujita
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2010 Volume 130 Issue 4 Pages 369-376

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Abstract

Poly-lactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable plastic, has excellent electrical insulation properties. Being a hard resin, however, PLA is difficult to apply to coated cable. In this study, we blended a plasticizer with PLA to soften it, and examined the effects of the plasticizer on the mechanical and electrical characteristics of PLA. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and the melting point (Tm) had a tendency to decrease with an increase in the amount of plasticizer. With an increase in the amount of plasticizer, the tensile strength had a tendency to decrease and the breaking elongation to increase. As described above, PLA became softer with an increase in the amount of plasticizer. At 25°C, dielectric breakdown strength (EB) was about 5 MV/cm, irrespective of the presence of the plasticizer; the plasticizer showed almost no effect on EB. At 80°C, however, EB had a tendency to increase with an increase in the amount of plasticizer.

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© 2010 by the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan
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