Abstract
The awareness of the severe environmental consequences of petroleum-based plastics has expanded globally. Therefore, academic and industrial researchers have been extremely encouraged to investigate replacing traditional petrochemical-based plastic products with biobased and biodegradable alternatives in order to minimize fossil fuel consumption. Among the biopolymers available nowadays, polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the tops produced and seems to be a promising candidate to commercially replace many nondegradable polymers. Although PLA offers comparable mechanical properties, inherent biodegradable character, and renewable biobased nature, PLA-based materials still need lots of studying and development. This chapter will highlight the most critical properties of PLA after providing a brief overview of its origin and production processes. The challenges and drawbacks that limit PLA processing and applications will be discussed in-depth as well. The chapter will mainly shed light on the PLA-based bionanocomposites and discuss their classifications, processing, and how nanotechnology can significantly develop neat PLA performance. At the end of the chapter, some of the most recent applications of the PLA-based bionanocomposites will be represented considering many fields such as food packaging, shape memory polymers, and medical tools for COVID-19 fighting.
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