In this study

the crystallization behaviors of polylactide (PLA) and its composites with different nucleating agents were investigated by differentical scanning calorimtery (DSC)

polarizing optical microscope (POM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Four different types of nucleating agents

including inorganic fillers (LAK and talc) and poly(D-lactide)(PDLA3.4 and PDLA6)

can effectively enhance the crystallization behavior of PLA. Furthermore

LAK was confirmed to be the most effective one

which significantly accelerated crystallization rate and increased the crystallinity. With the addition of 5wt% LAK into PLA

the half crystallization time (t

1/2

) can be decreased into two minutes and the crystallinity was increased to be 33%. Based on the Avrami’s equation

the inorganic fillers have no influence on the nucleation mechanism and geometry of crystal growth of PLA. However

with the addition of PDLA into the PLA matrix

the enhanced crystallization can be explained by the formation of PLA stereocomplex (PLA-SC)

which was found to have a much higher melting temperature and then acted as heterogeneous nucleating agents. XRD results indicated that the addition of nucleating agents had no influence on the crystalline structure

while the addition of PDLA significantly changed the crystal morphology according to the POM investigation.