PMID- 34883773
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20240404
IS  - 2073-4360 (Electronic)
IS  - 2073-4360 (Linking)
VI  - 13
IP  - 23
DP  - 2021 Dec 6
TI  - Expanding Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) Applications: 
      A Review on Modifications and Effects.
LID - 10.3390/polym13234271 [doi]
LID - 4271
AB  - The high price of petroleum, overconsumption of plastic products, recent climate 
      change regulations, the lack of landfill spaces in addition to the ever-growing 
      population are considered the driving forces for introducing sustainable 
      biodegradable solutions for greener environment. Due to the harmful impact of 
      petroleum waste plastics on human health, environment and ecosystems, societies 
      have been moving towards the adoption of biodegradable natural based polymers 
      whose conversion and consumption are environmentally friendly. Therefore, 
      biodegradable biobased polymers such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and 
      polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have gained a significant amount of attention in 
      recent years. Nonetheless, some of the vital limitations to the broader use of 
      these biopolymers are that they are less flexible and have less impact resistance 
      when compared to petroleum-based plastics (e.g., polypropylene (PP), high-density 
      polyethylene (HDPE) and polystyrene (PS)). Recent advances have shown that with 
      appropriate modification methods-plasticizers and fillers, polymer blends and 
      nanocomposites, such limitations of both polymers can be overcome. This work is 
      meant to widen the applicability of both polymers by reviewing the available 
      materials on these methods and their impacts with a focus on the mechanical 
      properties. This literature investigation leads to the conclusion that both PLA 
      and PHAs show strong candidacy in expanding their utilizations to potentially 
      substitute petroleum-based plastics in various applications, including but not 
      limited to, food, active packaging, surgical implants, dental, drug delivery, 
      biomedical as well as antistatic and flame retardants applications.
FAU - Naser, Ahmed Z
AU  - Naser AZ
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-6334-5925
AD  - School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
FAU - Deiab, Ibrahim
AU  - Deiab I
AD  - School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
FAU - Defersha, Fantahun
AU  - Defersha F
AD  - School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
FAU - Yang, Sheng
AU  - Yang S
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-6286-2779
AD  - School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Review
DEP - 20211206
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Polymers (Basel)
JT  - Polymers
JID - 101545357
PMC - PMC8659978
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - 3D printing
OT  - degradation
OT  - fillers
OT  - plasticizers
OT  - poly(lactic acid) (PLA)
OT  - polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs)
OT  - polymer blends
OT  - polymer nanocomposites
OT  - properties
OT  - review
OT  - sustainability
COIS- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2021/12/11 06:00
MHDA- 2021/12/11 06:01
PMCR- 2021/12/06
CRDT- 2021/12/10 01:01
PHST- 2021/11/05 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/11/25 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2021/11/30 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/12/10 01:01 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/12/11 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/12/11 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2021/12/06 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - polym13234271 [pii]
AID - polymers-13-04271 [pii]
AID - 10.3390/polym13234271 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Polymers (Basel). 2021 Dec 6;13(23):4271. doi: 10.3390/polym13234271.