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Updated: Mar 14, 2026

Designed for Molecular Recycling: A Lignin-Derived Semi-aromatic Biobased Polymer
Published on: November 30, 2020
Biopolyester-based systems containing naturally occurring compounds with enhanced thermo-oxidative stability
Rossella Arrigo1, Elisabetta Morici1, Nadka Tzankova Dintcheva1
1Department of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace, Materials Engineering, University of Palermo, Palermo - Italy.
Background:
This work presents a sustainable approach for the stabilization of polylactic acid (PLA) against thermo-oxidative aging.
Methods:
Naturally occurring phenolic and polyphenolic compounds, such as ferulic acid (FerAc), vanillic acid (VanAc), quercetin (Querc) and vitamin E (VitE), were introduced into PLA.
Results:
The preliminary characterization of the systems formulated containing different amounts of natural stabilizers showed that all compounds used acted as plasticizers, leading to a decrease in rheological functions with respect to neat PLA, without significantly modifying the crystallinity of the raw material. The study of the thermo-oxidative behavior of neat PLA and PLA/natural compound systems, performed by spectrometric and thermal analyses, indicated that all stabilizers considered were able to exert a remarkable antioxidant action against thermo-oxidative phenomena.
Conclusions:
All natural compounds considered are thus proposed as ecofriendly stabilizers, to get fully bio-based polymer systems with enhanced thermo-oxidative stability, suitable for biomedical applications.
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