Synthesis and selective enzymatic degradation of polylactide/poly(butylene succinate) mixtures

Abstract

This paper provides the enzymatic degradation behavior of the polylactide (PLA)/poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) blend systems by using their respective enzymes, proteinase K and lipase. In a previous report, l-PLA/PBS blend monolayers with ≥ 50 mol% l-PLA showed good compatibility and a slow hydrolytic rate. To support this study, the degradation behavior of the PLA/PBS blend systems was confirmed with Langmuir technique and AFM. The blend system with poor compatibility showed rapid degradability. However, as the amount of PLA exceeded 50 mol%, the degradation was insignificant because partial compatibility between the two polymers lowered the degradation rate of PBS.

Keywords:

• Blend compatibility
• enzymatic degradation
• poly(butylene succinate)
• polylactide

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Funds of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (20015768) and the BB 21plus funded by Busan Metropolitan City and BIT.