Migration resistant glucose esters as bioplasticizers for polylactide

Environmental and sustainability issues have catalyzed efforts to replace traditional polymer additives with biobased alternatives. Glucose pentaacetate (GPA) and sucrose octaacetate (SOA) as model commercial saccharide esters and three synthesized glucose hexanoate esters (GHs) were evaluated as bioplasticizers for polylactide (PLA). For the GHs different reaction times were utilized to reach plasticizers with different number of hexanoate groups to establish how the degree of substitution influences miscibility and migration resistance of the plasticizers. The synthesized GHs, GPA, and SOA all showed good miscibility with PLA. Largest improvements in strain at break were observed for the PLA films containing GH plasticizers. These films also exhibited simultaneous increase in stress at break as compared to plain PLA. The GH plasticizers had low tendency to migrate during aging in water and this migration resistance increased with increasing degree of substitution. The GHs are, thus, promising plasticizer alternatives for bioplastics as they also retain the biodegradable nature of these biobased materials. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 41928.