David Grewell1,*, Gowrishankar Srinivasan1, Eric Cochran2
Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.2, No.3, pp. 157-165, 2014, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2014.634112
Abstract Presented in this study is a novel recycling strategy for poly(lactic acid) (PLA) in which the depolymerization
is rapidly promoted by the base-catalyzed hydrol-/alcohol-ysis of the terminal ester bonds under mild
conditions. Post-consumer PLA water bottles were cut into approximately 6 x 2 mm plastic chips and heated
to 50–60o
C in water, ethanol, or methanol as the depolymerization medium. A variety of carbonate salts and
alkaline metal oxides were screened as potential catalysts. High-power ultrasound was also investigated as
a means to accelerate the PLA decomposition. Both mass loss and HPLC analysis of the treated suspensions
showed that the… More >
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