A Thermogravimetric Approach to Study the influence of a Biodegradation in Soil Test to a Poly(lactic acid)

An amorphous grade Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) was selected for an accelerated burial in soil test during 450 days. Thermogravimetric analyses were carried out to study the effects of degradation in soil on the thermal stability and the thermal decomposition kinetics. A single stage decomposition process is observed for all degradation times. it is shown that the thermal stability of PLA is slightly affected by degradation in soil. Concerning the study of the thermal decomposition kinetics, Criado master curves were plotted from experimental data to focus the study of the thermodegradation kinetic model. The kinetic methods proposed by Broido and Chang were used to calculate the apparent activation energies (Ea) of the degradation mechanism. These results were compared to the Ea values obtained by the method developed by Coats and Redfern in order to prove the applicability of the former methods to the kinetic study. As expected, non-linear tendency is found out for Ea variation along the degradation times, which can be explained as an evolution by stages.