Perspective on Polylactic Acid (PLA) based Sustainable Materials for Durable Applications: Focus on Toughness and Heat Resistance

TLDR

The bioplastics industry has evolved toward durable, high biobased materials, yet achieving both toughness and strength—often mutually exclusive—remains a key challenge for long‑term automotive and electronics applications. This perspective aims to replace fossil carbon with renewable carbon by tailoring PLA’s stiffness–toughness balance and heat resistance for durable use, thereby mitigating climate impact across the product life cycle. Recent research on PLA blends and composites is summarized, highlighting strategies that reconcile toughness, strength, and heat resistance through tailored morphology and crystallinity. The work elucidates how morphology and crystallinity individually enhance PLA’s toughness and heat resistance.

Abstract

Evolution of the bioplastics industry has changed directions dramatically since the early 1990s. The latest generation is moving toward durable bioplastics having high biobased content. The main objective is to replace "fossil carbon" with "renewable carbon", a holistic strategy to mitigate climate change by minimizing the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Durable bioplastics is desired for multiuse long-term application in automotive, electronics and other industries. One necessary requirement for them is to be both tough and strong, yet the two attributes are often mutually exclusive. Does this mean a biobased and biodegradable polymer as polylactic acid (PLA) with its high strength but low toughness cannot be adopted for durable applications? Well, not exactly; this is where the concept of tailoring the properties of PLA to achieve stiffness–toughness balance along with acceptable heat resistance comes into play. In this perspective, we summarize the recent research progress in addressing the toughness vs strength and heat resistance conflict inherent in PLA. Blends having super toughness and composites based on the toughened PLA blends formulated to obtain desired material properties are covered. Morphology and crystallinity that individually contribute to toughness and heat resistance have also been elucidated.