PLA
Contents
PLA
Polylactic acid (PLA) is a bio-degradable polymer that can be produced from lactic acid, which can be fermented from crops such as maize. This makes it an ideal candidate for use in certain energy rich, cash poor areas of the world.
It is harder then PTFE and melts at a lower temperature (around 170°C to 210°C), so is potentially a very useful material. It does exhibit higher friction than PTFE however.
For more details, see the Wikipedia entry on Polylactic acid
Availability
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Synthesis
A crude form of PLA can be produced by simply heating powdered lactic acid with powdered stannous chloride - commonly used in pottery glazes - in a test tube. Extracting it from the test tube afterwards is left as an excercise for the diligent student.
See papers in footnote for further details.
Papers etc
- [[File:PLA-kim-23-2-6-98033.pdf: Synthesis, Characterization and in Vitro Degradation of Poly(DL-Lactide)/Poly(DL-Lactide-co-Glycolide) Films.|thumb]]
- [[File:PLA-v30 327 334.pdf: Synthesis and Characterization of Poly(L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) Copolymers: Effects of Stannous Octoate Initiator and Diethylene Glycol Coinitiator Concentrations|thumb]]
- [[File:PLA-DiscreteYttriumComplexesasLactidePolymerizationCatalysts.pdf: Discrete Yttrium(III) Complexes as Lactide Polymerization Catalysts|thumb]]
- Stereoselective Ring-Opening Polymerization of meso-Lactide: Synthesis of Syndiotactic Poly(lactic acid) [[
, Page 2, Addendum|thumb]]
- Plastics from Renewable Materials A Royal Society of Chemistry educational document giving details of how to synthesise many polymers, including PLA.
