Many thermoplastic biocomposites made with non-biodegradable polymers as a matrix polymer are not biodegradable. In this work, biodegradable polylactide (PLA)/chitin micro-particle composites were successfully prepared by melt blending without using any compatibilizer or processing aid. The effects of the addition of chitin micro-particles to PLA on its thermal stability, physicomechanical properties and microstructures were evaluated by thermo-gravimetric analysis, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, tensile strength measurement, and scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the addition of chitin micro-particle to PLA increased the stiffness, tensile strength, and hydrophobicity of PLA but negatively affected its thermal properties and elongation. The tensile strength exhibited by the pristine PLA was 41.5 MPa, which increased to 48.5 for the chitin loading of 3% but a further increase in the chitin loading resulted in a reduction in tensile strength. The increase in chitin loading resulted in an increase in stiffness of PLA as the storage modulus increased from 3.21 GPa for the neat PLA to 3.48 GPa for the PLA loaded with 3% chitin microparticles. The results show that chitin can be used for the reinforcement and also to enhance the moisture barrier properties of PLA.

用不可生物降解的聚合物作为基质聚合物制成的许多热塑性生物复合材料是不可生物降解的。在这项工作中，通过熔融共混成功地制备了可生物降解的聚丙交酯（PLA）/几丁质微粒复合物，而无需使用任何增容剂或加工助剂。通过热重分析，动态机械热分析，差示扫描量热法，拉伸强度测量和扫描电子显微镜，评估了将几丁质微粒添加至PLA对其热稳定性，物理力学性能和微观结构的影响。发现向PLA中添加几丁质微粒可以增加PLA的刚度，抗张强度和疏水性，但会对其热性能和伸长率产生负面影响。原始PLA的抗拉强度为41。5 MPa，对于3％的几丁质负载，增加到48.5，但是几丁质负载的进一步增加导致拉伸强度降低。几丁质负载量的增加导致PLA的刚度增加，因为其储能模量从纯PLA的3.21 GPa增加到负载3％几丁质微粒的PLA的3.48 GPa。结果表明，甲壳素可用于增强，也可增强PLA的防潮性能。