# Effect of LNR-g-MMA on the Mechanical Properties and Lifetime Estimation of PLA/PP Blends
## 1 Introduction
These core-shell particles are environmentally friendly composite materials and employed as a compatibilizer for PLA/PP blends. Nevertheless, no studies have reported the effect of grafting MMA onto LNR particles (LNR\(-\)g\(-\)MMA) as a compatibilizer or impact modifier in PP/PLA blends. The thermal stability and lifetime of degradable polymer blends must be realized to develop innovative methods of waste disposal, service life, and recycling for these materials on an industrial scale to alleviate the worldwide energy crisis and environmental pollution problems. Many studies [16; 28; 29; 30] have been conducted and reported on the kinetics of thermal degradation of PLA and/or its blends. To date, no studies have investigated how adding LNR\(-\)g\(-\)MMA as a compatibilizer affects the thermal degradation behavior and the lifetime of PP/PLA blends using TGA. thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is typically performed to determine the thermal degradation kinetics. The activation energy (E\({}_{\text{a}}\)) can be calculated from degradation kinetics to estimate the polymer blend lifetime at different temperatures. The varied activation energy explains the thermal degradation process's complexity at different conversion degrees. The activation energies are derived from several isoconversional kinetic approaches that collect thermal degradation data at various temperature data and determine the activation energy distribution as the reaction. In general, the activation energy of any solid phase reaction is a function of the temperature\(-\)dependent properties of the reaction media. This study investigates the Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) isoconversional model. Overall, due to the brittleness of PLA, it can be blended with PP at ratios of 70:30 wt% [20; 21], yielding higher mechanical properties. It is well known that even a small quantity of compatibilizer can cause significant changes to a material's mechanical properties [19]. LNR\(-\)based latex particles with a sufficiently thick shell, comprising an inner soft polymer sphere, the \"core\", and an outer hard polymer (PMMA), the \"shell,\" give a free\(-\)flowing powder, which is usually employed in continuous extrusion processes for the preparation of polymer blends. This work aims to improve the compatibility between two types of polymer blends, PLA/PP (70:30 wt%), by adding a third component of LNR\(-\)g\(-\)MMA to act as the compatibilizer agent. The first portion of this study focused on synthesizing LNR\(-\)g\(-\)MMA using a redox initiator for core-shell\(-\)shaped particles. Later, the PLA/PP (70:30 wt%) blends with a certain amount of LNR\(-\)g\(-\)MMA (0, 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 phr) were prepared by melt blending in an internal mixer, and molded by compression molding. The effect of LNR\(-\)g\(-\)MMA content on the morphological, mechanical, water absorption, thermal degradation behavior, and thermal stability of PLA/PP blends was investigated. The model-free kinetic method was used to estimate the degradation activation energy (E\({}_{\text{a}}\)), which was used to predict the lifetime of PLA, PP, and PP/PLA blends without and with LNR\(-\)g\(-\)MMA content as a compatibilizer.