In today’s modern world, plastics are used for a variety of everyday applications from
plastic shopping bags to medicinal applications, but most of these plastics are resistant
to environmental influences such as humidity and microbial attack. The ecological problem
we now face in our landfills is the large volume of non-biodegradable plastics, which has
made the development of biodegradable plastics an urgent matter. Because of this
situation, the Chemical Metrology Group of NMISA (National Metrology Institute of South
Africa) has embarked on a collaborative effort with the Fibre and Polymer Technology
Department of KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) in Sweden to develop methods for the
analysis of biodegradable polymers. During the project, commercial and research samples
are analysed with various techniques, such as Pyrolysis-GC-MS, GPC, FTIR, SEM, TGA,
TGA-FTIR and DSC. The aim is primarily to evaluate what information can be obtained by
Pyrolysis-GC-MC and FTIR-TGA with respect to thermal properties and degradation products.
Currently polylactide (PLA) is the focus of many studies and it is one of the most
promising degradable polymers. One trend is to improve the properties of PLA through
addition of different nanofillers. In this work polylactide nanocomposites are made by
blending polylactide (PLA) with zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, halloysite (aluminosilicate)
or surface modified montmorillonite (phyllosilicate). The materials are characterized by
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and DSC. The thermal stability and resulting thermal
degradation products are analysed by TGA and Py-GC-MS. The results especially show the
influence of nanoparticle surface modification on the degradation product pattern.