Transesterification catalyzed via ferric chloride for fabricating Poly(lactic acid)/Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) blends with ultra-fast degradation and high toughness

Abstract The low degradation velocity of poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) leads to an excessive accumulation of waste PLA/PBAT, which is not conducive to environmental protection and sustainable development. In this work, the rapidly degradable PLA/PBAT/FeCl3 blends were successfully prepared by adding a small amount of ferric chloride (FeCl3) using the melt blending method. The materials showed appropriate mechanical strength while maintained a high degradation rate. For P/P-1 with 0.1 phr FeCl3 added, the degradation rate was 15.27 times higher than that of pure PLA and 4.19 times for P/P, the impact strength and elongation at break were 1.76 times and 1.09 times higher than that of PLA, respectively. During degradation, FeCl3 reacted preferentially with the ester bond of the PBAT chain close to the benzene ring in the P/Ps blends, followed by the ester bond on the aliphatic chain. The P/P-1 shows promising potential value in the application of rapidly degrading solid waste treatment and biomedical material (artificial ureter).