Poly-lactic Acid Nano-Composites

Poly(lactic acid) PLA has one of the high potentials among commercially aliphatic polyesters particularly for packaging and medical applications appearing to nearly meet all criteria; it is produced from naturally renewable resources such as potato sugarcane corn starch etc. it is biodegradable biocompatible easy thermal processability and low cost. However PLA has some deficiencies such as brittleness low thermal stability and slow crystallization rate limit its wide applications. In this Book we aimed to produce PLA-based nanocomposites reinforced with wt. % chitosan nanoparticles (CsNP) by melt twin–screw extrusion process. The influence of the CsNP on tensile testing the thermal and dielectric properties was discussed. The influence of Gama-irradiation on some of physicochemical properties such as molecular weight tensile testing thermal properties of the neat PLA and its composite containing CsNP both as cast films and in chloroform solution was also studied.