Designing and Engineering a Sustainable Polymer Material by Blending Poly(lactic acid) and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene

Polymer blends containing poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) were made by extrusion and injection molding. Due to the immiscible nature of the two, coupling was required. Additives were found that increased adhesion between the two, leading to increased performance. This work outlines the development and detailed characterization of the blends. There are several areas of focus in this work. The processing of each polymer was assessed and the effects of particular process conditions were studied. Notably, ABS had a propensity to thermo-oxidative degradation, which is outline in the first original research chapter. The effects of the additives on the blend properties were investigated on the blends, showing the development of high performance blends. The effect of increasing the range of PLA contents was also studied. Statistical optimization was done to find the best blend formulation. Finally, the structure development of the blends was studied.