Biologically Safe Poly(l-lactic acid) Blends with Tunable Degradation Rate: Microstructure, Degradation Mechanism, and Mechanical Properties.

Although poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) is reputed to be biodegradable in the human body, its hydrophobic nature lets it persist for ca. 5.5 years. This study demonstrates that biologically safe lactide copolymers, poly(aspartic acid-co-l-lactide) (PAL) and poly(malic acid-co-l-lactide) (PML), dispersed in the PLLA function as detonators (triggers) for its hydrolytic degradation under physiological conditions. The copolymers significantly enhance hydrolysis, and consequently, the degradation rate of PLLA becomes easily tunable by controlling the amounts of PAL and PML. The present study elucidates the effects of uniaxial drawing on the structural development, mechanical properties, and hydrolytic degradation under physiological conditions of PLLA blend films. At initial degradation stages, the mass loss was not affected by uniaxial drawing; however, at late degradation stages, less developed crystals as well as amorphous chains were degradable at low draw ratio (DR), whereas not only highly developed crystals but also the oriented amorphous chains became insensitive to hydrolysis at high DR. Our work provides important molecular level results that demonstrate that biodegradable materials can have superb mechanical properties and also disappear in a required time under physiological conditions.

In-Plane Anisotropic Thermally Conductive Nanopapers by Drawing Bacterial Cellulose Hydrogels.

We developed flexible polymeric "heat-guiding materials" by simply drawing bacterial cellulose (BC) hydrogels to align the cellulose nanofibers and form "nanopapers" with anisotropic thermal conductivity. The in-plane anisotropy of thermal conductivity between the drawn and transverse directions increased as the draw ratio increased. For the drawn BC nanopapers, the coefficient of thermal expansion was found to be inversely correlated with the thermal diffusivity. We fabricated a planar spiral sheet by assembling the drawn BC strips to visualize the "heat flux controllability". The coexistence of heat-diffusing and heat-insulating capacities within the single nanopaper plane could help to cool future thin electronics.

Change in thermal transitions and water uptakes of poly(l-lactic acid) blends upon hydrolytic degradation.

This article reports experimental data related to the research article entitled "Poly(malic acid-co-l-lactide) as a Superb Degradation Accelerator for Poly(l-lactic acid) at Physiological Conditions" (H.T. Oyama, D. Tanishima, S. Maekawa, 2016) [1]. Hydrolytic degradation of poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) blends with poly(aspartic acid-co-l-lactide) (PAL) and poly(malic acid-co-l-lactide) (PML) oligomers was investigated in a phosphate buffer solution at 40 °C. It was found in the differential scanning calorimetry measurements that upon hydrolysis the cold crystallization temperature (Tc ) and the melting temperature (Tm ) significantly shifted to lower temperature. Furthermore, the hydrolysis significantly promoted water sorption in both blends.

Crystallite Size Effect on Thermal Conductive Properties of Nonwoven Nanocellulose Sheets.

The thermal conductive properties, including the thermal diffusivity and resultant thermal conductivity, of nonwoven nanocellulose sheets were investigated by separately measuring the thermal diffusivity of the sheets in the in-plane and thickness directions with a periodic heating method. The cross-sectional area (or width) of the cellulose crystallites was the main determinant of the thermal conductive properties. Thus, the results strongly indicate that there is a crystallite size effect on phonon conduction within the nanocellulose sheets. The results also indicated that there is a large interfacial thermal resistance between the nanocellulose surfaces. The phonon propagation velocity (i.e., the sound velocity) within the nanocellulose sheets was estimated to be ∼800 m/s based on the relationship between the thermal diffusivities and crystallite widths. The resulting in-plane thermal conductivity of the tunicate nanocellulose sheet was calculated to be ∼2.5 W/mK, markedly higher than other plastic films available for flexible electronic devices.