Polylactide Biocomposites

Sawpan, M.A., Pickering, K.L., Femyhough, A. Improvement of mechanical performance of industrial hemp fibre reinforced polylactide biocomposites. Compos. A 42, 310-319 (2011)... 

Shen, L., Yang, H., Ying, J., Qiao, F, and Peng, M. (2009) Preparation and mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced hydroxyapatite/polylactide biocomposites. J. Mater. Sci. - Mater. Med., 20 (11), 2259-2265. 

The most common strategy to decrease the price or improve the properties of polylactide to fulfill the requirements of different applications is blending. Polylactide has been blended with degradable and inert polymers, natural and synthetic polymers, plasticizers, natural fibers and inorganic fillers. The most common blends include blends with other polyesters such as polycaprolactone or PLA/starch blends. Usually the compatibility between the two components has to be improved by addition of compatibilizers such as polylactide grafted with starch or acrylic acid (114,115). Recently a lot of focus was concentrated on the development of polylactide biocomposites, nanocomposites and stereocomplex materials. In addition various approaches have been evaluated for toughening of polylactide. 

Wu, C.S. Improving polylactide/starch biocomposites by grafting polylactide with acrylic acid-characterization and biodegradability assessment. Macromol. Biosci. 5, 352-361 (2005)... 

Singha AS, Thakur VK (2010) Mechanical, morphological, and thermal characterization of compression-molded polymer biocomposites. Int J Polym Anal Charact 15(2) 87-97 Sinha Ray S, Maid P, Okamoto M, Yamada K, Ueda K (2002) New polylactide/layeied silicate nanocomposites. 1. preparation, characterization, and properties. Macromolecules 35(8) 3104— 3110... 

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