Mechanical properties of biodegradable composites from poly lactic acid (PLA) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC)

Abstract Biodegradable composites were prepared using microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) as the reinforcement and polylactic acid (PLA) as a matrix. PLA is polyester of lactic acid and MCC is cellulose derived from high quality wood pulp by acid hydrolysis to remove the amorphous regions. The composites were prepared with different MCC contents, up to 25 wt %, and wood flour (WF) and wood pulp (WP) were used as reference materials. Generally, the MCC/PLA composites showed lower mechanical properties compared to the reference materials. The dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) showed that the storage modulus was increased with the addition of MCC. The X‐ray diffraction (XRD) studies on the materials showed…