• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.61-62
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• 2008

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 2009

This study investigated the surface characteristics of polylactic acid (PLA) film after one atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. We used de-ionized water and diiodomethane as polar and non-polar solvents, respectively, for measuring contact angles, and subsequently calculated the surface free energy of PLA film. The contact angle and free energy of PLA surface were optimized at the treatment time of 30 sec, RF-power of 70 W, Ar gas flow rate of 6 lpm and air exposure time of 5 min. We analyzed the change of chemical functional groups on the surface of PLA film through XPS and were able to observe the change of polar functional groups such as -C=O, -CO, -COO on the surface of PLA film after one atmospheric pressure plasma treatment.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.181-194
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• 2017

The biodegradability of polylactic acid(PLA) fabrics was evaluated by two methods: enzyme and soil degradation. Three different enzymes were selected to evaluate. Degradation times were measured at optimal enzyme treatment conditions. Biodegradation by enzymatic hydrolysis was compared with soil degradation. As a result, biodegradation created cracks on the fiber surface, which led to fiber thickening and shortening. In addition, new peak was observed at $18.5^{\circ}$ by degradation. Moreover, cracks indicating biofragmentation were confirmed by enzyme and soil degradation. By enzyme and soil degradation, the weight loss of PLA fabrics was occurred, there through, the tensile strength decreased about 25% by enzyme hydrolysis when 21 days after, and 21.67% by soil degradation when 60 days after. Furthermore, the biodegradability of PLA fabrics by enzymatic and soil degradation was investigated and enzymatic degradation was found to be superior to soil degradation of PLA fabrics. Among the three enzymes evaluated for enzymatic degradation, alcalase was the most efficient enzymes. This study established the mechanism of biodegradation of PLA nonwovens, which might prove useful in the textile industry.

• Clean Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.401-409
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• 2013

BBiodegradable polymers have attracted great attention because of the increased environmental pollution by waste plastics. In this study, PLA (polylactic acid)/Clay-20 (Cloisite 20) and PLA (polylactic acid)/PBS (poly(butylene succinate)/Clay-20 (Cloisite 20) nanocomposites were manufactured in a twin-screw extruder. Specimens for mechanical properties of PLA/Clay-20 and PLA/PBS (90/10)/Clay-20 nanocomposites were prepared by injection molding. Thermal, mechanical, morphological and raman spectral properties of two nanocomposites were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), tensile tester, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and raman-microscope spectrophotometer, respectively. In addition, hydrolytic degradation properties of two nanocomposites were investigated by hydrolytic degradation test. It was confirmed that the crystallinity of PLA/Clay-20 and PLA/PBS/Clay-20 nanocomposite was increased with increasing Clay-20 content and the Clay-20 is miscible with PLA and PLA/PBS resin from DSC and SEM results. Tensile strength of two nanocomposites was decreased, but thier elongation, impact strength, tensile modulus and flexural modulus were increased with an increase of Clay-20 content. The impact strength of PLA/Clay-20 and PLA/PBS/Clay-20 nanocomposites with 5 wt% of Clay-20 content was increased above twice than that of pure PLA and PLA/PBS (90/10). The hydrolytic degradation rate of PLA/Clay-20 nanocomposite with 3 wt% of Clay-20 content was accelerated about twice than that of pure PLA. The reason is that degradation may occur in the PLA and Clay-20 interface easily because of hydrophilic property of organic Clay-20. It was confirmed that a proper amount of Clay-20 can improve the mechanical properties of PLA and can control biodegradable property of PLA.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.670-677
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• 2011

This study is to optimize the enzymatic processing conditions of Polylactic Acid (PLA) fiber using lipase from Porcine pancreas as an environmental technology. Hydrolytic activity dependent on pH, temperature, enzyme concentration, and treatment time, and structural change of PLA fiber were evaluated. The PLA fiber hydrolysis by lipase was maximized at 50% (o.w.f) lipase concentration $50^{\circ}C$ for 120 minutes under pH 8.5. There was a change of the protein absorbance in the treatment solution before and after the lipase treatment. In addition, there was no substantial change in the molecular and crystalline structures of PLA by lipase treatment as confirmed by DSC, XRD, and FT-IR.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.952-961
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• 2013

This study optimizes a suitable dyeing method for polylactic acid (PLA) fabrics using disperse dyes. For this, disperse red 60 (DR 60), disperse blue 56 (DB 56), and disperse yellow 54 (DY 54) were used and dyed on PLA fabrics dependent of dyeing temperature and time. The fastness of PLA fabrics dyed with three disperse dyes were evaluated; in addition, dye exhaustion, color strength (K/S value), and colorimetric properties of PLA fabrics were compared with PET fabrics. The experiments indicated optimum dyeability of PLA fabrics with disperse dyes. The dyeing temperature was $90^{\circ}C$ for every dye and the dyeing time were 20 min, 60 min, and 40 min for DR 60, DB 56, DY 54, respectively. PLA fabrics had good color fastness to washing, dry cleaning fastness, hot pressing fastness, rub fastness, and perspiration fastness by DR 60, DB 56, and DY 54. The dye exhaustion of PLA fabrics were lower than PET fabrics; however, K/S values were higher than PET fabrics.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.421-426
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• 2016

Polylactic acid (PLA) is a biodegradable and renewable polymer, which represents a valuable alternative to plastic packaging films, often associated with environmental problems. In this study, we tested the suitability of PLA as a biodegradable packaging film and assessed the antimicrobial activity of lemongrass oil (LO), incorporated into the PLA film in different concentrations. To obtain the optimal physical properties for PLA films, tensile strength, elongation at break, and water vapor permeability were measured under different preparation conditions. In addition, the antimicrobial activity of the LO contained in the PLA film against Listeria monocytogenes was investigated by disc diffusion and viable cell count. Among all concentrations tested, 2% LO was the most suitable in terms of antimicrobial activity and physical properties of the PLA film. Based on these results, we used the PLA film containing 2% LO to pack pork sausages; after 12 d of storage at 4℃, the population of inoculated L. monocytogenes in the sausage samples wrapped with the PLA film containing 2% LO was reduced by 1.47 Log CFU/g compared with the control samples. Our data indicate that PLA films containing 2% LO represent a valuable means for antimicrobial sausage packaging.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.67-78
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• 2006

Modification of polylactic acid (PLA) and 10% maleic anhydride (MAH) with 15% dicumyl peroxide (DCP) based on MAH weight was conducted in the kneader at $160^{\circ}C$ and 30~70 rpm, for 15 min. The resulting MAH-modified PLA (PLA-MA) was then evaluated as a compatibilizer for PLA-wood flour (WF) composites. The FTIR and $^1H$-NMR analysis gave evidence of PLA-MA formation. After kneading and reacting with MAH and DCP, the number (Mn) and the weight average (Mw) molecular weights of PLA decreased as compared to the original PLA. The presence of WF in the composites decreased the tensile strength and several other physical properties. The higher the WF loading resulted in the greater the reduction of tensile strength. An addition of 10% PLA-MA as a compatibilizer to the composites improved the tensile strength and several other physical properties, increased the flow temperature, and decreased the melt viscosity. The improved composite revealed 1.42 times increased in tensile strength but not over PLA alone, and absorbed considerably less water compared to those of the composites free-compatibilizer.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.47-52
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• 2013

Aim of this study is to investigate the dimensional and shrinkage characteristics of the weft knitted fabrics with Polylactic acid(PLA) knitted yarn. This PLA knitted yarn was made of the biodegradability fiber. The structure of weft knitted fabrics that was utilized for this study is the plain stitch, which is the most basic structure among all weft knitted fabrics. As the stitch length is shorter, the stitch density, courses density, and wales density are more increasing. The stitch density increased as pre-treatment process and dyeing process progressed. On the contrary, the heat setting process made it decreasing. The MR(Machine Relaxation) and DR(Dry Relaxation) standard area shrinkage were increasing as wet process progressed and as the stitch lengths are long.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.261-267
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• 2015

The inclusion complexes (ICs) between polylactic acid (PLA) and ${\beta}$-cyclodextrin (CD) were prepared by co-precipitation method in this work. The orthogonal experiments were designed to investigate the influence of different factors on the formation of inclusion complexes. The results suggested that the optimum scheme of inclusion compounds could be obtained when the feeding ratio of CD to PLA (wt%) was 20:1, stirring speed was 6 kr/min and the stirring time was 30 min. The structures and properties of the inclusion complexes were characterized by $^1H$ NMR, FTIR, DSC, FT-Raman, XRD and TGA. The DSC results demonstrated that the crystallization behavior of the inclusion complexes nearly disappeared. It was found that ${\beta}$-CD-PLA inclusion complex had a better thermal stability compared with the neat PLA. The model of the inclusion complexes was proposed on the basis of XRD, $^1H$ NMR and DSC results.