Synthetic biopolymers are effective cues to replace damaged tissue in the tissue engineering (TE) field, both for in vitro and in vivo application. Among them, poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) has been highlighted as a biomaterial with tunable mechanical properties and biodegradability that allows for the fabrication of porous scaffolds with different micro/nanostructures via various approaches. In this review, we discuss the structure of PLLA, its main properties, and the most recent advances in overcoming its hydrophobic, synthetic nature, which limits biological signaling and protein absorption. With this aim, PLLA-based scaffolds can be exposed to surface modification or combined with other biomaterials, such as natural or synthetic polymers and bioceramics. Further, various fabrication technologies, such as phase separation, electrospinning, and 3D printing, of PLLA-based scaffolds are scrutinized along with the in vitro and in vivo applications employed in various tissue repair strategies. Overall, this review focuses on the properties and applications of PLLA in the TE field, finally affording an insight into future directions and challenges to address an effective improvement of scaffold properties.

Fibers spun by melt spinning of binary and ternary polypropylene/polyethylenetherephthalate blends have been produced and characterized in order to investigate the effect of a compatibilizer on their morphology and mechanical properties. The compatibilizer was a maleic anhydride-functionalized rubber copolymer. The effect of the compatibilizer was well evident in the isotropic state, as the morphology became very fine, the size of the dispersed particles was very small, and the adhesion was better. The effect of the compatibilizer on the mechanical properties is very relevant, especially in the elongation at break. On the contrary, no relevant effect was observed in the anisotropic oriented fibers. Although the average diameter of the microfibrils of the dispersed phase of the compatibilized blend generated during the hot drawing was much smaller than that of the microfibrils of the same particles of the uncompatibilized blend, the mechanical properties were almost the same. This behavior has been attributed to the length of the smaller microfibrils of the ternary blends, which was lower that of the microfibrils of the binary blend. This has been explained in terms of reduced initial droplet size, and therefore of lesser possibility of stretching the droplets to very long fibrils in these samples.

Irrigation tubes based on biodegradable polymers were prepared via an extrusion-drawing process by Irritec and compared to conventional pipes made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE). A commercial polylactide/poly (butyleneadipate-co-butyleneterephthalate) (PLA/PBAT) blend (Bio-Flex^®) and Mater-Bi^® were used. The polymers were characterized from rheological and mechanical points of view. Irrigation pipes were subjected to photoaging with continued exposure to UV radiation up to 22 days. The degradability in the soil of irrigation tube samples was studied. The influence of temperature and UV irradiation on soil burial degradation was investigated. A soil burial degradation test was carried out at 30 °C and 50 °C for up to 70 days. The degree of degradation was evaluated from the weight loss percentage. The degradation rate of irrigation tube samples based on Mater-Bi^® was higher at 30 °C and was stimulated after 14 days of UV irradiation. Higher temperatures or UV aging encouraged the disintegration in soil of Bio-Flex^®-based irrigation tubes. Furthermore, tube samples, before and after UV and soil burial degradation, were analyzed by Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infra-Red (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy.

Biodegradable Mater-Bi (MB) composites reinforced with hazelnut shell (HS) powder were prepared in a co-rotating twin-screw extruder followed by compression molding and injection molding. The effects of reinforcement on the morphology, static and dynamic mechanical properties, and thermal and rheological properties of MB/HS biocomposites were studied. Rheological tests showed that the incorporation of HS significantly increased the viscosity of composites with non-Newtonian behavior at low frequencies. On the other hand, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) examination revealed poor interfacial adhesion between the matrix and the filler. The thermal property results indicated that HS could act as a nucleating agent to promote the crystallization properties of biocomposites. Furthermore, the experimental results indicated that the addition of HS led to a significant improvement in the thermomechanical stability of the composites. This paper demonstrates that the incorporation of a low-cost waste product, such as hazelnut shells, is a practical way to produce low-cost biocomposites with good properties. With a content of HS of 10%, a remarkable improvement in the elastic modulus and impact strength was observed in both compression and injection-molded samples. With a higher content of HS, however, the processability in injection molding was strongly worsened.

It is well known that the need for more environmentally friendly materials concerns, among other fields, the food packaging industry. This regards also, for instance, nets used for agricultural product (e.g., citrus fruits, potatoes) packaging. These nets are typically manufactured by film blowing technique, with subsequent slicing of the films and cold drawing of the obtained strips, made from traditional, non-biodegradable polymer systems. In this work, two biodegradable polymer systems were characterized from rheological, processability, and mechanical points of view, in order to evaluate their suitability to replace polyethylene-based polymer systems typically used for agricultural product net manufacturing. Furthermore, laboratory simulation of the above-mentioned processing operation paths was performed. The results indicated a good potential for biodegradable polymer systems to replace polyethylene-based systems for agricultural product packaging.

The use of biodegradable/bio-based polymers is of great importance in addressing several issues related to environmental protection, public health, and new, stricter legislation. Yet some applications require improved properties (such as barrier or mechanical properties), suggesting the use of nanosized fillers in order to obtain bio-based polymer nanocomposites. In this work, bionanocomposites based on two different biodegradable polymers (coming from the Bioflex and MaterBi families) and two different nanosized fillers (organo-modified clay and hydrophobic-coated precipitated calcium carbonate) were prepared and compared with traditional nanocomposites with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) as matrix. In particular, the injection molding processability, as well as the mechanical and rheological properties of the so-obtained bionanocomposites were investigated. It was found that the processability of the two biodegradable polymers and the related nanocomposites can be compared to that of the HDPE-based systems and that, in general, the bio-based systems can be taken into account as suitable alternatives.