Flame Retardancy of Thermoplastic Foams from Biopolymers

Polylactic acid (PLA), with a global production in 2019 of about 0.29 million tons, is currently the commercially most well-developed, inexpensive and readily available biopolymer on the market.In the field of thermoplastic foams, PLA is able to substitute petro-based polymers like polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene (PE), for example in the packaging industry. Bead foam technologies used to produce products with complex three-dimensional foam geometry are well-established, for example for expanded polystyrene (EPS). However, the processing of PLA by bead foam technologies is still a challenge.