Effect of accelerated weathering on mechanical properties of bio-based thermoformed slabs

In recent decades, environmental issues, particularly related to the increasing use of plastics in almost all industrial applications, are increasingly encouraged both academic and industrial researchers in the study and development of so-called eco-friendly materials. In the framework of a financed national project aimed, among others, to develop new eco-sustainable luggage, attention was paid on two commercial blends supplied by BASF under the trade name family of ECOVIO. Materials, coded as T2308 and F blend C2224, are basically compounds of poly lactic acid (PLA) and an aliphatic-aromatic co-polyester Ecoflex®, containing 80% and 45% by weight of renewable resources, respectively. In this work, focusing the attention on rigid items, all materials, pre-dried for 4 h at 75°C, were compression molded to produce plaques systematically characterized in terms of low-velocity impact, Charpy impact and static flexural tests. The effects of artificial aging procedures on the same mechanical performances were also investigated. At this regard, conditioning was performed by both UV and xenon arc source exposure to simulate what occurs in nature.