PLA Plasticizers Derived from Biomass

One interesting way to modify the mechanical properties and preserve the environmentally friendly aspect of polylactides is by introducing bio-based compounds within the PLA matrix. Furthermore, the use of non-edible biomass could constitute a wide source of additives, and could provide an economically viable way to get added-value from residues.Numerous studies to transform biomass by-products of the agriculture and food industries have been conducted recently and some eco-friendly products have been successfully used to plasticize vitreous polymers, such as PVC.  

Nevertheless, due to the large diversity of molecules constituting a product issued from the biomass, isolating one of them is often costly and renders the process economically uncompetitive. Two main approaches using biobased products to enhance PLA mechanical properties are currently investigated and examples of each one are given below. 

The 95/5 wt% PLA/ESO blend did not point to any ductility improvement to values for neat PLA (5% elongation at break), but stress at yield was lowered from 60 MPa to 45 MPa. Al-Mulla et showed that modified mont- 

Based on the same principles, epoxidized palm oil (EPO) was studied, partly because of the great economic importance of palm oil production. Silver) ah et mixed EPO with PLA and observed an important increase in 

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