title: Moisture sorption, transport, and hydrolytic degradation in polylactide.
abstract: Management of moisture penetration and hydrolytic degradation of polylactide (PLA) is extremely important during the manufacturing, shipping, storage, and end-use of PLA products. Moisture transport, crystallization, and degradation in PLA have been measured through a variety of experimental techniques including size-exclusion chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry, and X-ray diffraction. Quartz crystal microbalance and dynamic vapor sorption experiments have also been used to measure moisture sorption isotherms in PLA films with varying crystallinity. A surprising result is that, within the accuracy of the experiments, crystalline and amorphous PLA films exhibit identical sorption isotherms.
authors.affiliation: Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. cairncross@drexel.edu
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Cairncross
authors.forename: Jeffrey G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: Shri
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramaswamy
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: O'Connor
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D001704:Biopolymers / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D004058:Diffusion; D004355:Drug Stability; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008970:Molecular Weight; D011091:Polyesters / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D001704:Biopolymers; D011091:Polyesters; D014867:Water; C033616:poly(lactide)