Study on the degradation behavior and mechanism of Poly(lactic acid) modification by ferric chloride

A kind of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) material with rapid degradation capacity was prepared with ferric chloride (FeCl 3 ), it's degradation rate was more than 10 times higher than that of pure PLA. FeCl 3 forms stable chemical bonds with C and O, which weakens the ester bond and leads to rapid degradation of PLA immensely. The degradation process of modified PLA is greatly accelerated because the presence of Fe 3+ facilitates the first step of the degradation process. The thermal stability of the modified materials decreased greatly, and the PLA changed from a higher crystalline polymer to an almost non-crystalline polymer with increasing FeCl 3 content, which enhanced the degradation rate due to the reduced intermolecular force . In terms of the degradation performance, the modified materials containing 2.95 phr FeCl 3 possessed the best comprehensive performance.