Due to biophenol being inherently antioxidant inefficient
and cost
intensive, it has no choice but to modify its chemical structure for
large-scale applications. Cardanol-heterocyclic amines (BAOs) were
prepared by a two-step method based on the intramolecular synergistic
antioxidant effects of cardanol and nitrogen-containing heterocycles.
Their thermal properties and antioxidant and photostability properties
in polylactic acid (PLA) were analyzed. The cardanol-heterocyclic
amines exhibited high initial decomposition temperatures as high as
380 °C. In addition, with the addition of 1% content of them
to PLA, the tensile strength retention rate remained at 35% after
48 h of photoaging, which was 2–2.5 times higher than that
of commercial antioxidant butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and remained
at 67% after 144 h of thermal-oxidative aging, which was about 2 times
higher than that of BHT. Among four cardanol-heterocyclic amines,
BAO4 possessed superior photostability and antioxidant properties,
presenting an intramolecular synergy between OH, N, and S.