Poly(lactic acid) plasticized by biodegradable glyceryl lactate

The esterification of glycerol with lactic acid was carried out to synthesize glyceryl lactate, which was used as a as a plasticizer with different contents and blended with poly(lactic acid) (PLA) to get a completely biodegradable material with potential applications because of its biodegradability. The structural, morphological, thermal, and mechanical properties of the plasticized PLA were studied to evaluate the plasticizing effects. The results show that the PLA plasticized with glyceryl lactate had a lower glass-transition temperature and a better ductility. With increasing plasticizer content, the crystallinity of PLA increased. The elongation at break reached 380%, and the impact strength was 1.7 times that of neat PLA. Simultaneously, the migration rate measurements showed that glyceryl lactate presented relatively low migration toward the surface compared with glycerol and citrate esters. (c) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43460.