Why do biodegradable plastic bags choose PLA and PBAT as raw materials?
With the intensification of "white pollution" pollution, countries around the world have introduced stricter plastic restrictions,
Biodegradable plastic bags occupy major supermarkets and shopping malls. If you observe carefully, you will find that, almost all of these biodegradable plastic bags are PBAT and PLA, so what are the advantages of PBAT and PLA?
Starch is widely distributed in fruits or plant fruits, roots or leaves. There are hundreds of millions of tons of starch produced every year in the world. It is one of many renewable and biodegradable resources, and has the advantages of wide sources and low prices. However, since natural starch has a microcrystalline structure and a granular structure, it does not have thermoplastic processing properties, and needs to be transformed into thermoplastic starch to have thermoplastic processing properties.
PBAT is a thermoplastic biodegradable plastic, the main raw materials are adipic acid (AA), terephthalic acid (PTA) and butanediol (BDO). PBAT not only has good ductility and elongation at break, but also has good heat resistance and impact properties; in addition, it also has excellent biodegradability, and is very active in the research of biodegradable plastics and the best degradable material in the market. one.
However, the high price of the material limits its application in the market. However, due to the impact of the ban on plastics, the degradable plastics industry has entered an explosive period, and one of the varieties with the greatest potential for large-scale production is PBAT. Relatively sufficient PBAT raw material production capacity.
PLA (polylactic acid) is also called polylactic acid. The production process of polylactic acid is non-polluting, and the product can be biodegraded to realize the cycle in nature. Therefore, it is an ideal green polymer material and one of the representatives of bio-based biodegradable plastics. one.
Polylactic acid has the advantages of good biodegradability, high biocompatibility, thermal stability, solvent resistance and easy processing. Products made of polylactic acid have good gloss, transparency, hand feeling and heat resistance. , also has antibacterial, flame retardant and anti-ultraviolet properties, so its use is very wide. At present, it is mainly used in the fields of plastics, packaging, textiles, medical treatment, agriculture, 3D printing materials, etc. It is the earliest synthetic biology in the field of materials. one of the applications.
PLA and PBAT have become mainstream in the field of degradable plastics
Degradable plastics refer to the plastics whose products can meet the performance requirements of the use performance and remain unchanged during the storage period, but can be degraded into environmentally harmless substances under natural environmental conditions after use, which can be processed through composting Converted into fertilizer, carbon dioxide and water, after planting sugar or starchy crops, it can be converted into organic molecules for the production of polymer materials through fermentation or chemical processing. Such a degradable cycle can greatly reduce the impact of waste plastics on the environment, and it is also an effective way to realize the recycling and utilization of resources.
Starch-based plastics have relatively large performance defects and limited scope of application, but are widely used because of their low price. With the gradual maturity of PLA and PBAT technology, the cost continues to decline, and the expansion of production capacity, the main growth point of degradable plastics in the future will focus on PLA and PBAT. Starch-based materials will become fillers for plastics such as PLA and PBAT, which will reduce costs.
