Water-Disintegrative and Biodegradable Blends Containing Poly(L-lactic acid) and Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)

In this study, novel biodegradable materials were successfully generated, which have excellent mechanical properties in air during usage and storage, but whose structure easily disintegrates when immersed in water. The materials were prepared by melt blending poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) and poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) with a small amount of oligomeric poly(aspartic acid-co-lactide) (PAL) as a degradation accelerator. The degradation behavior of the blends was investigated by immersing the blend films in phosphate-buffered saline (pH - 7.3) at 40 degrees C. It was shown that the PAL content and composition significantly affected morphology, mechanical properties, and hydrolysis rate of the blends. It was observed that the blends containing PAL with higher molar ratios of L-lactyl [LA]/[Asp] had smaller PBAT domain size, showing better mechanical properties when compared with those containing PAL with lower molar ratios of [LA]/[Asp]. The degradation rates of both PLLA and PBAT components in the ternary blends simultaneously became higher for the blends containing PAL with higher molar ratios of [LA]/[Asp]. It was confirmed that the PLLA component and its decomposed materials efficiently catalyze the hydrolytic degradation of the PBAT component, but by contrast that the PBAT component and its decomposed materials do not catalyze the hydrolytic degradation of the PLLA component in the blends. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 49: 342-354, 2011