Abstract
AbstractMicrocellular foaming of biodegradable and biocompatible PLA/starch composites in supercritical/compressed CO2 has been studied. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential application of this kind of materials in medical materials or drug containers. The rate of CO2 uptake and CO2 equilibrium concentration in PLA/starch composites were studied by performing sorption and desorption experiments. The effects of a series of variable factors, such as saturation time and saturation temperature on the foaming morphology were studied through SEM observation and density measurement. The experimental results show that, while keeping other variables unchanged, longer saturation time leads to reduced bulk foam densities and different saturation pressures result in different bulk foam densities. The crystallinity of PLA–starch sample was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry. It indicates that the foaming treatment with supercritical CO2 increased the crystallinity of PLA/starch composites. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008
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