Waterbased PLA dispersions for inks & coatings

 
Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most promising biobased and biodegradable polymers on the market. Besides extrusion coating for paper and cardboard, there exist little to no commercial examples of coating formulations based on PLA. Centexbel developed a novel method to prepare low cost dispersions of PLA, which include the use of different plasticisers. The formulations are >90% biobased and can be used for coating and printing and have an improved flexibility and impact resistance compared to virgin PLA films. Furthermore, the coating formulations could be modified so that certain coating films were degradable in soil at low temperatures while crosslinked films showed a dramatically improved resistance to hydrolysis, allowing e.g. textile prints to resist washing at 30°C. This new development therefore is very promising for use in very different applications in paper, wood and textile coating or printing.