Polylactic acid blends: The future of green, light and tough

Morphology Evolutions and Mechanical Properties of In Situ Fibrillar Polylactic Acid/Thermoplastic Polyurethane Blends Fabricated by Fused Deposition Modeling

“…To overcome the drawbacks, PLA has been toughened with high aspect ratio nano‐fillers to improve the toughness by creating high performance for PLA end products in many polymer blends/alloys' studies . Most commercial biodegradable micro/nano‐sized polymer agents, including natural cellulose whiskers, synthetic carbon fibers, and organic fillers, are found effective for improving the impact toughness of PLA. The resulting green composites are thus attractive for use as engineering materials, especially for lightweight structures in aerospace, automobile industry, and biomedical implants …”

“…The performance of a polymer blends not only relates to the properties of its components, but also highly depends on the component morphology and their interfacial interactions. All these phenomena are originated from the miscibility and structure of the blend components . As a result, there needs great efforts to control the component morphology of immiscible blends, such as PLA and another biocompatible thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU).…”

Fabrication and characterization of PLA/PP/ABS ternary blend

“…PLA is one of the most important biodegradable polyesters, which could be processed using traditional processing techniques (extrusion, injection, etc.). It has better thermal process‐ability compared to other biopolymers such as poly(hydroxyl alkanoates) and poly(ethylene glycol) . Due to its initial production costs, the starting applications of PLA focused on high value products such as medical devices .…”

“…It has better thermal process‐ability compared to other biopolymers such as poly(hydroxyl alkanoates) and poly(ethylene glycol) . Due to its initial production costs, the starting applications of PLA focused on high value products such as medical devices . However, advances in the polymerization technology significantly reduced the production cost and contributed to make PLA economically competitive with petroleum‐based polymers.…”

“…However, advances in the polymerization technology significantly reduced the production cost and contributed to make PLA economically competitive with petroleum‐based polymers. PLA's potential for food packaging is very high due to its transparency, mechanical properties, and acceptable moisture process‐ability for dry food stuff . However, its inherent brittleness, low toughness, which is due to a low entanglement density and a high value of characteristics ratios, and its high cost comparing with the traditional polymers restrict its applications in niche markets .…”