An Investigation on the Effect of Pressure and Temperature on Microcellular Foams of Polylactic Acid (PLA)/Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) Binary Blends

Reducing the weight of petrol-derived plastics is a common way to decrease the environmental impact of several products. Another option consists in using biopolymers instead. However, most of the times, the complete substitution is not possible and partial replacement, usually obtained by blending, appears as a solution. The foaming of these blends combines both strategies and constitutes a further step to reduce the amount of petrol-derived plastics. In this study, PLA/ABS blends were prepared by melt blending without using any type of compatibilizer and were foamed by batch using super critical carbon dioxide as foaming agent. The final morphology of the blends was studied by SEM as a function of pressure and process temperature. Results shows that PLA/ABS blends can be successfully foamed under different conditions to obtain better structures than those known for pure components.