Optimizing Experimental Variables to Enhance the Biodegradability of Polylactic Acid

Abstract:

Polylactic acid (PLA), the biodegradable materials, mainly using biobase as raw materials, is the biodegradable polyester manufactured with fermentation and chemical synthesis, or polymerization of monomers from petrochemical products. The polymer usually made with the renewable resources, such as microorganism, plants and animals, will be decomposed into water and carbon dioxide if the natural landfill or compost environment has sufficient moisture, temperature, oxygen and suitable microorganism. Therefore, this paper aims to improve the hydrolysis rate of the PLA during the whole decomposition process and to increase the decomposition rate of PLA in the natural environment. In this paper, Taguchi method was used for the parameter design of PLA hydrolysis and focusing on choosing the conditions that would affect PLA hydrolysis as control factors, for example, temperature, bacteria, ventilation degree and nutrient. Meanwhile, the experiment was conducted with L8 orthogonal array and analysis of variance to find out the significant factor and the optimal conditions of PLA hydrolysis. We found the temperature and bacteria are signify factors by the variance. Lastly, confirmation experiments verified the reproducibility of this experiment. Confirmed by the experiments, results showed that the obtained SN ratios were greater than the rate of eight PLA hydrolysis experiments and this means the experiment is reliable.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volume 472)
• Pages: 815-819
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.472.815
• Online since: January 2014
• Authors: Shu Wen Wang, Te Li Su
• Keywords: Optimization, Poly(lactic acid) (PLA), Taguchi Method

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