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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Chem.
Sec. Polymer Chemistry
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fchem.2025.1552814
This article is part of the Research Topic Innovative Flame Retardant Materials: Balancing Efficiency, Safety, and Sustainability View all articles
Co-pyrolysis and combustion characteristics of polylactic acid and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene: Insights into interactions, kinetics and synergistic effects
Provisionally accepted- Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Polylactic acid (PLA) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) are the most commonly used filaments in 3D printing. To enable filament materials to withstand higher stresses, PLA and ABS are often blended (PLA/ABS). In this work, the co-pyrolysis and combustion properties of PLA/ABS blends of various ratios (75%/25%, 50%/50%, and 25%/75%) were analyzed.Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the catalytic pyrolysis of the blends became more intense as the proportion of PLA in PLA/ABS increased. Cone calorimetry tests indicated that the pyrolysis of ABS determines the peak heat release rate of the PLA/ABS blend. The higher amount of PLA allows the blend to pyrolyze at lower temperatures and the combustion reaction becomes more violent. The theoretical heat of combustion was calculated by correlating the average and maximum HRR with the heat flux through theoretical analysis. The theoretical heat of combustion obtained from the maximum HRR data is more reliable than from the average HRR data. This study has implications for the efficient utilization and fire protection of materials based on PLA/ABS.
Keywords: PLA, ABS, Co-pyrolysis, Thermogravimetric, Cone calorimeter, Combustion characteristics
Received: 29 Dec 2024; Accepted: 18 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Yang, Zhan, Li and Xiao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kaiyuan Li, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Fei Xiao, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.