Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Aug 20:8:688.
doi: 10.3389/fchem.2020.00688. eCollection 2020.

Recent Progress in Enhancing Poly(Lactic Acid) Stereocomplex Formation for Material Property Improvement

Affiliations
Review

Recent Progress in Enhancing Poly(Lactic Acid) Stereocomplex Formation for Material Property Improvement

Fuhong Luo et al. Front Chem. .

Abstract

The production and utilization of polymers have been widely implemented into diverse applications that benefit modern human society, but one of the most valuable properties of polymers, durability, has posed a long-standing environmental challenge from its inception since plastic waste can lead to significant contamination and remains in landfills and oceans for at least hundreds of years. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) derived from renewable resources provides a sustainable alternative to traditional polymers due to its advantages of comparable mechanical properties with common plastics and biodegradability. However, the poor thermal and hydrolytic stability of PLA-based materials limit their potential for durable applications. Stereocomplex crystallization of enantiomeric poly (l-lactide) (PLLA) and poly (d-lactide) (PDLA) provides a robust approach to significantly enhance material properties such as stability and biocompatibility through strong intermolecular interactions between L-lactyl and D-lactyl units, which has been the key strategy to further PLA applications. This review focuses on discussing recent progress in the development of processing strategies for enhancing the formation of stereocomplexes within PLA materials, including thermal processing, additive manufacturing, and solution casting. The mechanism for enhancing SC formation and resulting material property improvement enabled by each method are also discussed. Finally, we also provide the perspectives on current challenges and opportunities for improving the understanding of processing-structure-property relationship in PLA materials that could be beneficial to their wide practical applications for a sustainable society.

Keywords: advanced manufacturing; biodegradability; crystallization; structure-property relationship; sustainable.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic illustration of different processing methods that have been developed for enhancing the stereocomplex (SC) formation from PLLA and PDLA, which are primarily composed of either one or multiple of following strategies: (A) melt processing; (B) additive manufacturing, and (C) solution casting.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic illustration of some representative processing techniques for preparing PLA materials with high degree of SC formation. (A) melt processing at a specific temperature window (Gao et al., 2019) (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2017, Elsevier); (B) using homopolymer (He et al., 2019) (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2016, Elsevier); (C) layer-by-layer inkjet printing (Mei et al., 2018) (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2012, Wiley); and (D) electrospinning (Yu et al., 2018) (Reproduced with permission. Copyright 2018, ACS).

References

    1. Akagi T., Fujiwara T., Akashi M. (2012). Rapid fabrication of polylactide stereocomplex using layer-by-layer deposition by inkjet printing. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51, 5493–5496. 10.1002/anie.201201586 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Al-Salem S. M., Lettieri P., Baeyens J. (2009). Recycling and recovery routes of plastic solid waste (PSW): a review. J. Waste Mana 29, 2625–2643. 10.1016/j.wasman.2009.06.004 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Andrady A. L., Neal M. A. (2009). Applications and societal benefits of plastics. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 364, 1977–1984. 10.1098/rstb.2008.0304 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bai D., Diao X., Ju Y., Liu H., Bai H., Zhang Q., et al. (2018). Low-temperature sintering of stereocomplex-type polylactide nascent powder: the role of optical purity in directing the chain interdiffusion and cocrystallization across the particle interfaces. Polymer 150, 169–176. 10.1016/j.polymer.2018.07.028 - DOI
    1. Bai D., Liu H., Bai H., Zhang Q., Fu Q. (2016). Powder metallurgy inspired low-temperature fabrication of high-performance stereocomplexed polylactide products with good optical transparency. Sci. Rep. 6:20260. 10.1038/srep20260 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources