Adherability and weldability of poly(lactic acid) and basalt fibre-reinforced poly(lactic acid)

Polylactic acid (PLA)

This website provides an excellent overview of PLA as a polymer, its properties, and manufacture. This web article describes the production of lactic acid from biomass by microbial fermentation coupled to a poly-merization process to make PLA. The article is a bit dated and its industrial projections are now seen to be a bit over-optimistic. NatureWorks is the company that started large-scale p...

Green nanocomposites of polylactic acid reinforced with isolated nanocellulose

New Polylactic Acid Composites Reinforced with Artichoke Fibers

In this work, artichoke fibers were used for the first time to prepare poly(lactic acid) (PLA)-based biocomposites. In particular, two PLA/artichoke composites with the same fiber loading (10% w/w) were prepared by the film-stacking method: the first one (UNID) reinforced with unidirectional long artichoke fibers, the second one (RANDOM) reinforced by randomly-oriented long artichoke fibers. Bo...

Cytocompatibility and Mechanical Properties of Short Phosphate Glass Fibre Reinforced Polylactic Acid (PLA) Composites: Effect of Coupling Agent Mediated Interface

In this study three chemical agents Amino-propyl-triethoxy-silane (APS), sorbitol ended PLA oligomer (SPLA) and Hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) were identified to be used as coupling agents to react with the phosphate glass fibre (PGF) reinforcement and the polylactic acid (PLA) polymer matrix of the composite. Composites were prepared with short chopped strand fibres (l = 20 mm, ϕ = 20 µm) in...

Investigation of drug release from paclitaxel loaded polylactic acid nanofibers

Objective(s): In this study, drug loaded electrospun nanofibrous mats were prepared and drug release and mechanism from prepared nanofibers were investigated.  Materials and Methods: Paclitaxel (PTX) loaded polylactic acid (PLA) nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning. The effects of process parameters, such as PTX concentration, tip to collector distance, voltage, temperature and flow rate...