A major drawback to the use of PLA in many applications is this material's brittleness. Now, researchers have created a new, super tough PLA simply by mixing a low amount (0.5–1 wt %) of organoalkoxysilane with PLA.

Researchers at Tennessee-based Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the largest US Department of Energy (DOE) open science laboratory, announced they had developed a novel to create a supertough renewable plastic with improved manufacturability. Working with polylactic acid, a biobased plastic often used in packaging, textiles, biomedical implants and 3D printing, the research team added tiny amounts of silicon-based materials called silanes to design a new polymer. The new bioplastic demonstrated improved tensile strain and tensile toughness, without a loss in tensile strength and modulus. According to ORNL's Soydan Ozcan, the new method offers a fast, scalable route to increasing PLA toughness, which will broaden the use of PLA.
"Our fast, scalable approach makes a new form of PLA that is 10 times tougher without sacrificing strength or stiffness," said Ozcan. "This could broaden applications where polymer toughness is critical." The research team detailed the underlying chemical reactions in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. The team plans to tailor the new polymer for additive manufacturing and packaging.

Image: Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher Halil Tekinalp combines silanes and polylactic acid, or PLA, to create supertough renewable plastic.

https://www.ornl.gov/news