Biocompatibility enhancement of PLA by the generation of bionanocomposites with fish collagen derivatives

Nanocomposites comprising bio-based polymers have become relevant in fields such as food packaging and biomedical applications. Polylactide (PLA) is a chiral and aliphatic polyester that can attain a wide range of tacticities which enables to tailor of the final material properties. However, PLA exhibits hydrophobic characteristics requiring the enhancement of its bioactivity by the generation of composites with hydrophilic materials as an approach to generate multifunctional material. Collagen is a natural and hydrophilic biopolymer that is partially hydrolyzed to obtain a material exhibiting higher solubility in aqueous solutions, namely gelatin, thus improving collagen usability. Herein, a series of free-standing films comprising different concentrations of commercial PLA and gelatin obtained from waste fisheries were produced to afford biocompatible coatings with promising biomedical applications. The multiscale structural characterization performed from the molecular scale (FTIR) to the nano-scale (SAXS/WAXS) level has been correlated with the thermal behaviour (DSC) and degradation (TGA) of the bionanocomposites generated to understand the processing conditions on the final material.