Sustainable Polylactide-Based Blends

Professor Suprakas Sinha Ray is a Chief Research Scientist and Manager of the Centre for Nanostructures and Advanced Materials, DSI-CSIR Nanotechnology Innovation Centre, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa. His current research focuses on the applications of advanced nanostructured & polymeric materials. He is one of the most active and highly cited authors in the field of polymer nanocomposite materials, and he has recently been rated by Thomson Reuters as being one of the top 1% most impactful and influential scientists and top 50 high impact chemists. He is the author of 7 authored books, co-author of 5 edited books, 32 book chapters on various aspects of polymer-based nanostructured materials & their applications, and author and co-author of 430 articles in high-impact international journals. Dr. Ritima Banerjee completed her Masters in Polymer Science and Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD), India. After working in the polymer industry (GE Plastics and SABIC) for 7 years, she returned to academia. She taught in Delhi Technological University for two years and subsequently completed her PhD from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, IITD, the area of her work being microcellular processing of thermoplastic elastomer based blends and nanocomposites. She is presently a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering in Calcutta Institute of Technology, India. Her research interests include microcellular processing and the structure-property-processing relationship of polymeric materials.

1. Introduction 2. Terminology and dimensions of sustainability, life cycle assessment, and characteristics of sustainable polymer materials 3. Science and technology of polylactide 4. Synthesis, properties, advantages, and challenges of bio-based and biodegradable polymers used for the preparation of blends with polylactide 5. Fundamentals of polymer blend technology 6. Processing technologies for polylactide-based blends 7. Techniques for structural and morphological characterization of polymer blends 8. Mechanical models for polymer blends 9. Polylactide stereocomplex 10. Polylactide/natural rubber blends 11. Polylactide/starch blends 12. Polylactide/chitosan blends 13. Polylactide/poly(hydroxyalkanoate) blends 14. Polylactide/lignin blends 15. Polylactide/natural oil blends 16. Polylactide/poly(butylene succinate) blends 17. Polylactide/poly[(butylene succinate)-co-adipate] blends 18. Polylactide/poly(e-caprolactone) blends 19. Polylactide/poly(butylene adipate terephthalate) blends 20. Market, current and future applications 21. Conclusions, challenges, and future outlook