Baimark Yodthong, Pakkethati Kansiri, Srihanam Prasong
Biodegradable Polymers Research Unit, Department of Chemistry and Centre of Excellence for Innovation in Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Mahasarakham University, Mahasarakham 44150, Thailand.
Polymers (Basel). 2025 May 14;17(10):1338. doi: 10.3390/polym17101338.
In this work, poly(L-lactic acid)/thermoplastic alginate (PLA/TPA) biocomposites were prepared through a melt blending method. The TPA was initially prepared using glycerol as a plasticizer. The effects of TPA content on the interactions between blend components, thermal properties, phase morphology, mechanical properties, hydrophilicity, and biodegradation properties of biocomposites were systematically investigated. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis corroborated the interaction between the blend components. The addition of TPA enhanced the nucleating effect for PLA, as determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed poor phase compatibility between the PLA and TPA phases. The thermal stability and mechanical properties of the biocomposites decreased with the addition of TPA, as demonstrated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and tensile tests, respectively. The hydrophilicity and soil burial degradation rate of biocomposites increased significantly as the TPA content increased. These results indicated that PLA/TPA biocomposites degraded faster than pure PLA, making them suitable for single-use packaging, but this necessitates careful optimization of TPA content to balance mechanical properties and soil burial degradation rate for practical single-use applications.
在本研究中，通过熔融共混法制备了聚（L-乳酸）/热塑性海藻酸盐（PLA/TPA）生物复合材料。TPA最初是使用甘油作为增塑剂制备的。系统研究了TPA含量对生物复合材料共混组分之间的相互作用、热性能、相形态、力学性能、亲水性和生物降解性能的影响。傅里叶变换红外（FTIR）光谱分析证实了共混组分之间的相互作用。差示扫描量热法（DSC）测定结果表明，TPA的添加增强了PLA的成核作用。扫描电子显微镜（SEM）显示PLA和TPA相之间的相相容性较差。热重分析（TGA）和拉伸试验分别表明，随着TPA的添加，生物复合材料的热稳定性和力学性能下降。随着TPA含量的增加，生物复合材料的亲水性和土壤掩埋降解速率显著提高。这些结果表明，PLA/TPA生物复合材料的降解速度比纯PLA快，使其适用于一次性包装，但为了实际的一次性应用，需要仔细优化TPA含量以平衡力学性能和土壤掩埋降解速率。
