In relation to packaging, starches and biopolyesters make up these biofoams as they are adequate replacements to expanded polystyrene. Polylactic acids (PLAs) are a common form of the basis of these biofoams since they offer a substitute for polyolefin-based foams that are commonly used in automotive parts, pharmaceutical products, and short life-time disposable packaging industries due to their bio-based and biodegradable properties. PLA comes from the formation of lactide produced from lactic acid due to bacterial fermentation through ring-opening polymerization, in which the process is shown through Figure 4.
PLA does not have the most desirable traits for biodegradability in the packaging industry as it contains a low heat distortion temperature and has unfavorable water barrier characteristics. On the other hand, PLA has been shown to have desirable packaging properties including high ultraviolet light barrier properties, and low melting and glass transition temperatures. As of recently, PGA has been introduced in the packaging industry as it is a good solvent and comparable to PLA. Table 1 shows the characteristics of both biofoams and how they compare. As shown, PGA contains a strong stereochemistry structure which in turn causes it to have high barrier and mechanical properties making it desirable for the packaging industry. The study of mixing both PGA and PLA has been explored by using copolymerization in order for PGA to help enhance the barrier properties of PLA when used in packaging.
Table 1: The properties of PLA in comparison to PGA.