Biodegradation of high molecular weight polylactic acid

Abstract

Polylactid acid seems to be an appropriate replacement of conventional non-biodegradable synthetic polymer primarily due to comparable mechanical, thermal and processing properties in its high molecular weight form. Biodegradation of high molecular PLA was studied in compost for various forms differing in their specific surface area. The material proved its good biodegradability under composting conditions and all investigated forms showed to be acceptable for industrial composting. Despite expectations, no significant differences in resulting mineralizations were observed for fiber, film and powder sample forms with different specific surface areas. The clearly faster biodegradation was detected only for the thin coating on porous material with high specific surface area.