Biodegradable Plastics: Processing to Performance

The new environmental regulations drive the engineers to take a holistic approach in product design. The design must include: (a) materials from renewable resource, and (b) disposability in an environment that is ecologically compatible or under natural compost increases the desired organic content of soil. The book covers three important areas: (a) processing: thermomechanical environment and systematic changes of processing variables, (b) processing - structural evolution: rheology-induced structure development, rheology independent structure development, (c) processing - morphology ¿ properties relationships of porous and compact products. The selected studies suggest that morphologies i.e. level of orientation, the fraction of amorphous and crystallinity contents can be tailored rheologically, using the control of thermomechanical environment. Interestingly, a completely new paradigm of structural evolution i.e. a miscible polymer blend is rheologically independent, and produces continuous lamellar morphology. A number of porous biodegradable and bioresorbable, composite constructs, were developed, and their in-vitro mechano-chemical relevance was evaluated in simulated fluid