Abstract:
Polylactic acid (PLA) is an attractive material to use instead of petroleum-based polymers because of its good mechanical and physical properties similar with petroleum-based polymers. PLA is widely used in many fields, such as biomedical, agricultural, fibers, and packaging because of its environmental friendly and non-toxic properties. However, this leads to a rapid increase in consumption rate. Mechanical recycling is not suitable for post-consumer PLA products as this process made the products have lower quality. In contrast, chemical recycling is an effective process to convert polymeric waste to other valuable products. This work is aimed to develop a chemical recycling process for post-consumer products of degradable PLA by employing alcoholysis reaction with glycerol, and microwave irradiation as a heat source. Effects of reaction conditions, in terms of PLA/glycerol feed ratios, reaction temperature and time, on chemical structures and molecular weight of the resulting products are investigated by GPC, 1H-NMR, HPLC, and FTIR spectroscopy. The product is then applied as additive for toughening of PLA resin. The optimal ratio of additive contents are examined by tensile test, DSC, XRD and SEM. Furthermore, effects of molecular weight of the alcoholysed products and the blend compositions on miscibility, mechanical and thermal properties of the resulting blend are also discussed.
Thammasat University. Thammasat University Library