Poly lactic acid (PLA) polymers: from properties to biomedical applications

Polylactic acid (PLA), one of the well-known bioabsorbable and compostable polyesters has rapidly evolved into a competitive commodity material over the last decades. To provide efficient therapy for the biomedical application domain understanding the PLA properties is the key tenets to achieve suitable chemical and biological properties. In most instances, PLA can be blended or copolymerized with other polymeric or nonpolymeric components. Devices made of PLA and its copolymers tend to slow degradation in vivo without inflammatory reaction and infection. This work intends to give an overview of the characterization and properties of PLA (i.e. crystallization behavior, physical properties, solubility and miscibility, degradation, and thermal properties). Also, we present some information about key elements to enhance PLA and its copolymers/composites/blends properties to optimize their fit with worldwide application requirements. This paper also emphasizes PLA applications in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries, as well as recent PLA-based biomedical implant developed with Additive manufacturing (AM) devices.