Poly(lactic acid)-modified films for food packaging application: Physical, mechanical, and barrier behavior

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is now a very attractive polymer for food packaging application because in addition of being thermoplastic, biodegradable, compostable, and produced from renewable resources, it shows same behavior in mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties comparable to the most used synthetic polymers like polystyrene and poly(ethylene terephthalate). In this work, we take into consideration four commercial PLA films, natural- and surface-modified, to make a correlation between mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties due to the surface modification, to well understand whether PLA is adapt to packaging application, especially in the food field. Films were studied by tensile testing, simultaneous differential thermal analysis/thermogravimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, permeation to carbon dioxide and oxygen at different temperature (7 and 23 degrees C) and FTIR spectroscopic analysis. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012