The effect of pMDI on the morphology and physical/mechanical properties of PLA/PBAT blends with a packaging application

One of the problems of today s world is the impressive increase in waste that occurs with the growth of the human population, and the contribution of plastics is significantly evident. Their main application is due to their reasonable price and good properties in the packaging industry. In this industry, the use of petroleum products is very welcomed by manufacturers but the problem that can be felt in these materials is their non biodegradability and limited resources. Biodegradable blends and nanocomposites are a good alternative. polylactic acid (PLA) is one of these materials and its outstanding property is biodegradability. However, weaknesses such as brittle behavior, high permeability to gases, hydrophilicity and low thermal stability have caused it to be mixed with materials such as polybutylene-adipate-co-trophthalate (PBAT), with good permeability to gases and moisture, biodegradable and flexible to be used. Although PLA and PBAT have g ood complementary properties, they are less compatible with each other. In the present research, PBAT is used to solve PLA problems, and its physical, mechanical, morphological and biodegradability properties are investigated by addition of pMDI compatibilizer to PLA/PBAT blend.