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Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsAizoh Sakurai, Kana Akainaga, Naoyuki Toriumi, James S. Mrozinski, Matthew J. Schmid
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The present disclosure describes a method for forming microporous and antimicrobial articles. The method comprises preparing an initial composition containing a semicrystalline polylactic acid material, a nonpolymeric aliphatic ester diluent, and a nucleating agent. The initial composition is heated to form a melt blended composition. Upon cooling, the melt blended composition phase separates into a composition having two continuous phases. A network of interconnected micropores may be formed by stretching the composition, by removing at least a portion of the nonpolymeric aliphatic ester diluent from the composition, or a combination thereof.
A microporous article comprising a semicrystalline polylactic acid material, a nucleating agent and optionally a nonpolymeric aliphatic ester diluent, the microporous article having a network of interconnected micropores therebetween, the microporous article characterized by a multiplicity of spaced, spherulitic semicrystalline polylactic acid material domains, adjacent semicrystalline polylactic acid material domains being connected to each other by a plurality of fibrils comprising polylactic acid material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.