Recent Advances of Polylactic Acid (PLA) Toughening Methods

Nowadays, polylactic acid (PLA) has been one of the most important packaging materials in daily life. PLA is eco-friendly because it can be made from renewable resources and is degradable, but it also has a drawback that is lack of toughening. In this review, papers about 3 main methods that could help improve the toughening of the PLA have been collected. They are blending, copolymerization and composition. Blending is a physical method to make the materials uniformly to improve the properties of the material. Copolymerization is the reaction of polymerizing various compounds into one substance under certain conditions. Composition is the termination of reaction by combining two growing free radicals to form a saturated macromolecule. This work will give some exact examples to improve the toughening of the PLA. It is expected that there will be better research methods and materials that are able to improve the toughness of PLA in the future.