(A1-3-4)Preparation and Characterization of Poly(lactic acid) Blends Toughened with Modified Soybean Oil

摘要

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is regarded as one of the most promising biobased and biodegradable polymers. Because of its compelling advantages such as high strength, easy processability, and non-toxicity to human beings and environment, PLA has great potential for applications in many areas [1, 2]. However, some significant shortcomings of PLA including inherent brittleness, slow crystallization rate, and low heat distortion temperature have largely restricted its wider application. Many strategies, such as plasticization, copolymerization, and polymer blending, have been developed to toughen PLA [3]. Polymer blending is a convenient and efficient method via directly incorporating ductile polymers into PLA system. Vegetable oils are cost-effective products characterized by high availability and consist of esters of glycerol with three flexible long-chain fatty acids. These characteristics make vegetable oil derivatives very attractive to be used as toughening agents for PLA.