Preparation and Characterization of Poly(lactic acid)(PLA) Foams Processed in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

초록

The foams of biodegradable Poly(lactic acid)(PLA) via a pressure quench method was prepared. General PLA which has a low melt strength was not physically foamed by supercritical carbon dioxide. Therefore the molecular structures of PLA was modified using branching agents. The effect of gel content, reaction temperature and reaction behavior was also studied. In this work, it was possible to control the cell size of the PLA foams by changing the foaming conditions such as saturated pressure, saturated temperature and degree of branching of PLA.