PLA: Biodegradable Materials

PLA is one of the most widely studied biodegradable materials at home and abroad. Medical, packaging and fiber are the three most popular application fields.  PLA takes lactic acid from natural sources as the main raw material, which has good biodegradability and biocompatibility. Its life cycle load on the environment is significantly lower than that of petroleum-based materials, so PLA is considered as the most promising green packaging material.

Biodegradable plastic refers to a kind of material that can be degraded into low molecular weight material by microorganism itself or the secretion of microorganism under certain conditions.  According to the US Food and Drug Administration, except for biodegradable plastics and very few water-degradable plastics that can be used in food packaging, other plastics such as photodegradable plastics or photobiodegradable and biodegradable plastics do not meet the requirements as food packaging materials.  

Polylactic acid (PLA) can be completely decomposed into carbon dioxide and water under natural conditions after being discarded. It has good water resistance, mechanical properties and biocompatibility. It can be absorbed by organisms and has no pollution to the environment.  At the same time, PLA also has good mechanical properties.  It has high resistance strength, good flexibility and thermal stability, plasticity, processing molding, no color, oxygen and water vapor has a good permeability, but also has a good transparency, anti mildew, antibacterial, service life of 2~3 years.