Elsevier Sustainable Polylactide-Based Blends (Materials Today)

Sustainable Polylactide-Based Blends provides a critical overview of the state-of-the-art in polylactide (PLA)-based blends, addressing the latest advances, innovative processing techniques and fundamental issues that persist in the field. Sections cover the fundamentals of sustainable polymeric materials, polylactide and polymer blends, current and upcoming processing technologies, structure and morphology characterization techniques for PLA and PLA-based blends, and the processing, morphology development, and properties of polylactide-based blends. Final chapters focus on current and future applications, market potential, key challenges and future outlooks. Throughout the book, theoretical modeling of immiscible polymer blends helps to establish structure-property relationships in various PLA-based polymer blends. With in-depth coverage of fundamentals and processing techniques, the book aims to support the selection of each processing method, along with an understanding of surface chemistry to achieve improved compatibility between phases. Review Provides a critical overview of PLA-based blends, addressing the latest advances, innovative processing techniques and fundamental issues From the Back Cover <i>Sustainable Polylactide-Based Blends</i> provides a thorough and critical overview of the state-of-the-art in PLA-based blends, addressing the very latest advances, innovative processing techniques, and fundamental issues that persist in this field, and aims to support future research and industrial application of these materials.<br><br>The book begins by presenting the fundamentals of sustainable polymeric materials, polylactide, and polymer blends. This is followed by two chapters that introduce current and upcoming processing technologies, and structure and morphology characterization techniques for PLA and PLA-based blends. The main section of the book then covers in detail the processing, morphology development, and properties of polylactide-based blends, with each chapter examining a different material blend. The final chapters of the book focus on current and future applications, market potential, key challenges, and future outlook for polylactide-based blends.<br><br>Throughout the book, theoretical modeling of immiscible polymer blends helps to establish structure-property relationships in various PLA-based polymer blends. With in-depth coverage of fundamentals and processing techniques, the book also aims to support the selection of processing method and the understanding of surface chemistry, in order to achieve improved compatibility between phases. The emphasis on end application and market will help those in industry who want to bring advanced sustainable material-based products into the market.<br><br>This book is therefore a valuable resource for researchers, scientists, and advanced students across polymer science, materials science, and engineering, as well as all those working with bio-based materials. In an industrial setting, this is of great interest to engineers, researchers, and R&D professionals interested in developing PLA-based sustainable products for a range of advanced applications. About the Author Professor Suprakas Sinha Ray is a Chief Research Scientist and Manager of the Centre for Nanostructures and Advanced Materials, DSI-CSIR Nanotechnology Innovation Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa. He received his PhD degree in Physical Chemistry at the University of Calcutta, India in 2001 and was a recipient of the ‘‘Sir P. C Ray Research Award’’ for the best PhD work. Prof. Ray’s current research focuses on the applications of advanced nanostructured and polymeric materials. He is one of the most active and highly cited authors in the field of polymer nanocomposite materials, and he has recently been rated by Thomson Reuters as one of the Top 1% most impactful and influential scientists and