Wood, silver-substituted zeolite and triclosan as biodegradation controllers and antibacterial agents for poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and PLA composites

Journal article

Authors/Editors

Strategic Research Themes

No matching items found.

Publication Details

Author list: Prapruddivongs C., Sombatsompop N.

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Publication year: 2017

Journal: Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials (0892-7057)

Volume number: 30

Issue number: 5

Start page: 583

End page: 598

Number of pages: 16

ISSN: 0892-7057

eISSN: 1530-7980

URL: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85019137612&doi=10.1177%2f0892705715604683&partnerID=40&md5=3d7d3f4b323dac30649bb92b338f74a6

Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)

View in Web of Science | View on publisher site | View citing articles in Web of Science

Abstract

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and wood flour/PLA composites were prepared and blended with two antimicrobial agents, triclosan and silver-substituted zeolite (Zeomic), using a twin-screw extruder. The mechanical and thermal properties, antimicrobial activity, and biodegradation performance were investigated. The addition of wood and Zeomic was found to increase the Young's modulus of the composites, whereas the tensile strength, elongation at break, and impact strength dropped. However, the mechanical properties of PLA and wood/PLA loaded with triclosan did not show any definite trends. Differential scanning calorimetry data indicated that the glass transition temperature value of neat PLA was 63ฐC, whereas those of wood/PLA composites were lower. When wood and Zeomic were incorporated, PLA exhibited double melting peaks. Triclosan (1.0 and 1.5 wt%) demonstrated antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, as determined by plate count agar technique, whereas Zeomic did not. Biodegradation tests of neat PLA and wood/PLA composites showed that after a 60-day incubation period, the biodegradation rate of wood/PLA was higher than that of PLA. PLA and wood/PLA-containing Zeomic were found to degrade more quickly, suggesting that wood and Zeomic acted as biodegradation promoters. On the other hand, triclosan could be considered a biodegradation retarder since no biodegradation was observed for any triclosan-loaded samples during the initial 20 days of incubation, while neat PLA and wood/PLA composites began to degrade within the first few days. ฉ SAGE Publications.

Keywords

Antibacterial properties