The goal of this work is to examine the thermal, rheological, mechanical and thermophilic anaerobic biodegradation performance of PLA blends containing a highly degradable polymer. Here random copolymers consisting of Poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) and Poly(glycolic acid) (PGA) structural units (75:25 M ratio) were synthesized at three different molecular weights (M_w = 16, 58 and 113 kg mol⁻¹) and melt blended with a high molecular weight PLA homopolymer. The glass transition temperature (T_g) of poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) was lower than that of PLA and increased with copolymer molecular weight. A single T_g intermediate to that of the two blend constituents was observed suggesting miscibility. Polymer blends showed enhanced methane production at early stages of anaerobic degradation with the rate increasing with increasing PLGA content and decreasing PLGA molecular weight. Blends exhibited a decrease in modulus and tensile strength as compared to pure PLA. Likewise, a decrease in ductility for all but the lowest molecular weight copolymer containing blend was observed. The zero-shear viscosity of polymer blends scaled predictably with PLGA content and exhibited reduced sensitivity to shear-rate. It is envisioned that this strategy could be applied for those applications where recycling is prohibitive such as at universities, hospitals and stadiums where mixed waste streams containing plastics and other waste types, such as food and paper, can be anaerobically co-digested and the resulting biogas used as fuel.

这项工作的目的是检查含有高度可降解聚合物的PLA共混物的热，流变，机械和嗜热厌氧生物降解性能。在此，以三种不同的分子量（M _w  = 16、58和113 kg ）合成了由聚（1-乳酸）（PLLA）和聚（乙醇酸）（PGA）结构单元（比例为75:25 M）组成的无规共聚物mol ^-1）并与高分子量PLA均聚物熔融共混。聚乳酸-共-乙醇酸（PLGA）的玻璃化转变温度（T _g）低于PLA，并且随着共聚物分子量的增加而升高。单T _g观察到两种混合物成分的中间值暗示混溶性。聚合物共混物在厌氧降解的早期显示出甲烷产量的增加，其速率随PLGA含量的增加和PLGA分子量的降低而增加。与纯PLA相比，共混物的模量和拉伸强度降低。同样，观察到除了分子量最低的共聚物以外的所有混合物的延展性降低。聚合物共混物的零剪切粘度与PLGA含量成比例，并且对剪切速率的敏感性降低。可以预想，该策略可用于禁止回收的应用，例如在大学，医院和体育馆中，其中含有塑料和其他废物类型（例如食物和纸张）的混合废物流，