Biodegradable PLA-based materials modified by hemp extract

Abstract

Biodegradable and compostable polymers are sensitive to environmental factors. For this reason, they require stabilisers that inhibit ageing and degradation processes. Until now, synthetic stabilisers have been used in the polymer industry, but in recent years, in the era of environmentally friendly solutions, naturally occurring compounds have started to be used. It has become increasingly popular to create composites that are entirely of natural origin. An example of a natural stabiliser is hemp extract, which is presented and studied in this paper. It was applied to a polymer matrix made of polylactide. The samples were subjected to weathering and thermo-oxidative ageing, followed by infrared spectroscopic, spectrophotometric, static-mechanical and surface-free energy analyses. The results obtained confirm the validity of the assumption of an inhibitory ageing effect of hemp extract in the case of thermo-oxidative ageing and, very interestingly, of a catalytic effect in the case of weathering. Research on the use of this type of stabiliser in polymer composites is a scientific novelty that no one has investigated in polymer materials to date. This topic needs to be explored further due to the increasing interest and importance of hemp and its derivatives as materials and functional substances.