Performance Improvement of Eco Plastics/Poly Lactic Acid

We are studying Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) based materials for injection molding in order to spread Eco Plastics widely. A compatibilizer which has an appropriate compatibility with PLA and never disturbs crystallization of PLA was selected. The compatibilizer was kneaded with various kinds of PLA and heat resistance (Heat distortion Temperature) and impact performance (IZOD impact) were measured. As a result, impact performance was considerably improved; however, heat resistance was not enough. We found poor heat resistance was caused by poor crystallinity of PLA. In the future work, we are looking for crystallization promotion method of PLA to improve heat resistance.