1) To investigate mechanical, physical, thermal properties and anti-bacterial performances of PLA with different materials formulations, such as, nucleating agents, flexible PBS and dicumyl peroxide (DCP), anti-bacterial agent.
2) To determine appropriate processing techniques and conditions for productions of PLA products to have high end-use properties and/or to facilitate the chemo-biodegradation of PLA.
3) To isolate and characterize PLA-degrading bacteria and their effects on protease production and PLA biodegradation and verify the degradation mechanisms of PLA in soil microcosm, whether chemical or biological mechanism is dominant along a while period of PLA degradations.
4) To investigate the performance of soil bioaugmentation with PLA-degrading bacteria on biodegradation of neat PLA, PLA/PBS blends and PLA final products (beverage cups) and seek optimum conditions (mechanical and UV pre-treatments, additions of enzyme inducers) for accelerating of degradation of neat PLA and PLA products under soil burial exposure
