Abstract

Polylactic acid (PLA), one of the well-known bioabsorbable and compostable polyesters has rapidly evolved into a competitive commodity material over the last decades. To provide efficient therapy for the biomedical application domain understanding the PLA properties is the key tenets to achieve suitable chemical and biological properties. In most instances, PLA can be blended or copolymerized with other polymeric or nonpolymeric components. Devices made of PLA and its copolymers tend to slow degradation in vivo without inflammatory reaction and infection. This work intends to give an overview of the characterization and properties of PLA (i.e. crystallization behavior, physical properties, solubility and miscibility, degradation, and thermal properties). Also, we present some information about key elements to enhance PLA and its copolymers/composites/blends properties to optimize their fit with worldwide application requirements. This paper also emphasizes PLA applications in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries, as well as recent PLA-based biomedical implant developed with Additive manufacturing (AM) devices.

摘要

聚乳酸 (PLA) 是著名的生物可吸收和可堆肥聚酯之一，在过去几十年中迅速发展成为具有竞争力的商品材料。为生物医学应用领域提供有效的治疗，了解 PLA 的特性是获得合适的化学和生物学特性的关键原则。在大多数情况下，PLA 可以与其他聚合物或非聚合物组分共混或共聚。由 PLA 及其共聚物制成的装置往往会减缓体内降解无炎症反应和感染。这项工作旨在概述 PLA 的表征和特性（即结晶行为、物理特性、溶解度和混溶性、降解和热特性）。此外，我们还提供了一些关于增强 PLA 及其共聚物/复合材料/共混物性能的关键元素的信息，以优化其与全球应用要求的匹配。本文还强调了 PLA 在制药和生物医学行业的应用，以及最近使用增材制造 (AM) 设备开发的基于 PLA 的生物医学植入物。