Polylactic acid
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| Identifiers | |
|---|---|
| 26100-51-6 | |
| ECHA InfoCard | 100.128.355 |
| Properties | |
| Density | 1.210–1.430 g·cm−3 |
| Melting point | 150 to 160 °C (302 to 320 °F; 423 to 433 K) |
| Insoluble in water | |
| Hazards | |
| NFPA 704 | |
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Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
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| Infobox references | |
Poly(lactic acid) or polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) is a biodegradable and bioactive thermoplastic aliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch (in the United States and Canada), tapioca roots, chips or starch (mostly in Asia), or sugarcane (in the rest of the world). In 2010, PLA had the second highest consumption volume of any bioplastic of the world.
The name "polylactic acid" does not comply with IUPAC standard nomenclature, and is potentially ambiguous or confusing, because PLA is not a polyacid (polyelectrolyte), but rather a polyester.
Producers have several industrial routes to usable (i.e. high molecular weight) PLA. Two main monomers are used: lactic acid, and the cyclic di-ester, lactide. The most common route to PLA is the ring-opening polymerization of lactide with various metal catalysts (typically tin octoate) in solution, in the melt, or as a suspension. The metal-catalyzed reaction tends to cause racemization of the PLA, reducing its stereoregularity compared to the starting material (usually corn starch).
Another route to PLA is the direct condensation of lactic acid monomers. This process needs to be carried out at less than 200 °C; above that temperature, the entropically favored lactide monomer is generated. This reaction generates one equivalent of water for every condensation (esterification) step, and that is undesirable because water causes chain-transfer leading to low molecular weight material. The direct condensation is thus performed in a stepwise fashion, where lactic acid is first oligomerized to PLA oligomers. Thereafter, polycondensation is done in the melt or as a solution, where short oligomeric units are combined to give a high molecular weight polymer strand. Water removal by application of a vacuum or by azeotropic distillation is crucial to favor polycondensation over transesterification. Molecular weights of 130 kDa can be obtained this way. Even higher molecular weights can be attained by carefully crystallizing the crude polymer from the melt. Carboxylic acid and alcohol end groups are thus concentrated in the amorphous region of the solid polymer, and so they can react. Molecular weights of 128–152 kDa are obtainable thus.
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