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SUMMARY:Enhancing Mechanical Properties of Polymer Blends through Transeste
 rification
LOCATION:Chemistry A101
TZID:America/Denver
DTSTART:20241206T160000
UID:2026-05-25-20-14-57@natsci.colostate.edu
DTSTAMP:20260525T201457
Description:About the Seminar: \n\nPolymer blends are a great pathway to cr
 eate materials with enhanced material properties that are also tunable by 
 varying the ratio of the blend. Blending offers an easier pathway compared
  to copolymerization\, but miscibility of polymers in a blend is a common 
 challenge.  Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB)
  are both biosourced polymers\, that each offer a different set of materia
 l properties.  Both PLLA and P3HB are biodegradable and can be produced f
 rom biosourced starting materials\, making them attractive sustainable opt
 ions. It has previously been shown that control of tacticity can produce s
 yndio-rich P3HB (sr)-P3HB and iso-rich P3HB (ir)-P3HB. These installed ste
 reodefects help to enhance the mechanical properties of perfectly isotacti
 c P3HB\, which by itself is very brittle\, to produce syndiorich and isori
 ch P3HB which are much tougher. PLLA is known for its high tensile strengt
 h and rigidity but suffers from brittleness\, whereas stereodiverse P3HB i
 s tougher and more ductile\, but does not have the tensile strength near t
 he level of PLLA. To access these tunable properties by combining PLLA and
  P3HB the two polymers must be made more miscible because the mixing of di
 fferent polymers is thermodynamically unfavorable. Here we will look at ho
 w transesterification can be used to improve the miscibility of polymer mi
 xtures to then enhance the material properties of the blend. 4:00 pm
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