Study of different effects on foaming process of biodegradable PLA/starch composites in supercritical/compressed carbon dioxide |
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| Authors: | Ayou Hao Yuanyuan Geng Qun Xu Zhanyong Lu Long Yu |
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| Affiliation: | 1. College of Textile Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 200051, China;2. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China;3. CSIRO, CMIT, Melbourne 3169, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Microcellular foaming of biodegradable and biocompatible PLA/starch composites in supercritical/compressed CO2 has been studied. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential application of this kind of materials in medical materials or drug containers. The rate of CO2 uptake and CO2 equilibrium concentration in PLA/starch composites were studied by performing sorption and desorption experiments. The effects of a series of variable factors, such as saturation time and saturation temperature on the foaming morphology were studied through SEM observation and density measurement. The experimental results show that, while keeping other variables unchanged, longer saturation time leads to reduced bulk foam densities and different saturation pressures result in different bulk foam densities. The crystallinity of PLA–starch sample was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry. It indicates that the foaming treatment with supercritical CO2 increased the crystallinity of PLA/starch composites. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008 |
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| Keywords: | supercritical/compressed CO2 biodegradable PLA/starch composites microcellular |
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