Katalin Litauszki

• PhD in Polymer Engineering
• Assistant professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Nowadays, research into environmentally friendly, renewable materials is the focus of materials science. One of the best candidates for these purposes is polylactic acid (PLA), whose properties are determined mainly by its D-lactide content. PLA is often plasticized to achieve proper toughness. Our aim was to investigate the combined effects of pla...

We investigated how the compostability of polymeric foam samples is influenced by the d-lactide content of poly(lactic acid) and the presence and dosage of an expandable microspheres-type foaming agent. Our results show that the poly(lactic acid)-based foam sheet with higher d-lactide content decomposed faster (49 days) than the foam sheet with low...

In this study, we present the effect of laser treatment on polymeric poly(lactic acid) drug carrier films. Our goal was to demonstrate the control of the drug-release kinetics of a polymeric carrier as a function of total absorbed laser energy. The controlled drug release kinetic was achieved by modifying the amorphous polymeric carrier's molecular...

Nowadays, environmental awareness is more and more important. Therefore, the importance of weight reduction and creating a circular economy has increased. In this study, we foamed bio-based polylactic acid (PLA) with thermally expandable microspheres to create homogenous, compostable polymer foams. The polylactic acid-based foamed sheet samples wer...

In this research, we physically foamed semicrystalline polylactic acid filled with montmorillonite, carbon nanotubes, and halloysite nanoparticles. In the case of polymer foams, their density and compressive strength are important parameters. Although the specific compressive strength calculated as the ratio of the two is a good indicator of the us...

Poly(lactic acid) is a promising biopolymer but due to its low heat deflection temperature, the usage of PLA-based products is limited. In the case of bulk products, annealing is an effective way to increase the heat deflection temperature. Our aim was to improve the heat deflection temperature of poly(lactic acid) foams by annealing. In this study...

In our work, we modified polylactic acid biopolymer using oligomeric lactic acid. We have successfully plasticised polylactic acid compounds with 5, 10, 20 wt% oligomeric lactic acid using a liquid dosing system connected to a compounder extruder. The produced compounds were foamed with an exothermic chemical foaming agent. The density of the foams...

Munkánk során a politejsav biopolimer alapvetően rideg viselkedését módosítottuk oligomer tejsav alkalmazásával. Sikeresen állítottunk elő folyadékadagoló használatával 5, 10, 20 %-ban oligomer tejsavval lágyított politejsav-keverékeket ikercsigás extrudálás segítségével. A gyártott keverékeket exoterm kémiai habképzővel habosítottuk. Az ilyen módo...

This paper presents the characterization of poly(lactic acid)-based chemically foamed foam structures. We used extrusion grade, high molecular weight poly(lactic acid) as matrix material and azodicarbonamide as foaming agent. The resulting foams were characterized by foam density, cell population density, scanning electron microscopy, and based on...

This study presents the investigation of different content of thermally expandable microsphere (EMS) type of a physical blowing agent added to polylactic acid (PLA). The effects of the different doses of EMS, processing temperatures, and d-lactide content of the polylactic acid were analyzed for foam properties and structures. We characterized the...

This study presents the comparative study of two different accelerated aging methods of poly(D-,L-lactide acid) (PLA). One is the well-known and widely used accelerated weathering chamber. The other procedure is photodegradation with a homogenized laser beam, which has not been used for the artificial aging of biopolymers so far. The film sample wa...

Our development goal was to create foamed polymer systems based on biodegradable and renewable resource-based polymers. We used polylactic acid (PLA) and several types of chemical foaming agents (endothermic and exothermic), and produced foam samples by extrusion. We characterized and analyzed the foam samples with a wide range of tests (determinin...

This study presents the applicability of different types (exothermic and endothermic) of chemical blowing agents (CBAs) in the case of poly(lactic acid) (PLA). The amount of foaming agent is a fixed 2 wt%. We used a twin-screw extruder and added the individual components in the form of dry mixture through the hopper of the extruder. We characterize...