Flammability and Thermal Stability in Clay/Polyesters Nano-Biocomposites

In these years we are witnessing the growth of the biopolymers durable application markets such as buildings, transportation, electronic equipments etc. Thus, the fire retardancy issue is becoming important and it is expected that in the next future more and more research will be devoted to the subject. So far, a limited number of papers reports on flame retardant properties of biopolyesters and they are mainly on polylactide. Most of the papers published on this topic regarding biopolyesters, concern polyesters fire retarded by traditional fire retardants developed for oil sourced polymers, especially polyesters such as polyethylene terephthalate or other polymers such as polycarbonate. The recently developed use of nanoclays to fire retard polymers has proved to be beneficial also for polyesters from renewable resources. This chapter reviews the studies published on thermal and fire behaviour of polylactide nanocomposites based on clays. Indeed, PLA is the most important commercial plastic from renewable resources (RRP) polyester for which durable applications are being developed and fire retardant aspects are investigated.