Question

Which among the following is an environmental friendly polymer?
1. Poly styrene
2. Poly sthylene
3. Poly lactic acid
4. Poly propylene

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : Poly lactic acid

Polylactic acid is an environmental-friendly polymer.

Explanation:

1. The disposal of a large amount of polymer waste is one of the major challenges of this century.
2. The use of bio-degradable polymers obtained from sustainable sources presents a solution to this problem.
3. Polylactic acid (PLA), a bio-degradable polymer, can be synthesized from sustainable sources as corn, starch, sugarcane, and chips.
4. Ring opening polymerization (ROP) of Lactide monomer using metal/bimetallic catalyst (Sn, Zn, or Al) is the preferred method for the synthesis of PLA.
5. However, the PLA synthesized using such catalysts may contain trace elements of the catalyst. 
6. These catalyst traces are known carcinogens and as such should be (ideally) eliminated from the process. 
7. Continuous reactive extrusion of lactide monomer (using the suitable reaction input has the potential to increase the throughput, and this route has been explored in the literature.
8. In this work, reactive extrusion experiments using stannous octoate Sn(Oct)2 and tri-phenyl phosphine (PPh)3, were considered to perform ROP of lactide monomer using the microwave as alternative energy (AE) source for activating and/or boosting the polymerization