Surface Modification of Commercially Available PLA Polymer Mesh

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a promising environ-mentally friendly candidate to replace petroleum-based polymers. However, its inherent hydrophilic wettability is a drawback for applications in the textile and packaging industry, and outdoor applications such as exclusion nets on plants. Even though researchers have successfully altered the wettability of tightly controlled amorphous PLA samples in the lab, none have yet reported the modification of commercial PLA. The goal of this article was to develop an easily scalable surface modification technique to alter the wettability of commercially available, highly crystalline PLA. In this work, a surface modification technique- called dip-dip-dry (DDD)-previously validated for amorphous three-dimensional (3D)-printed PLA, has been optimized for transforming the wettability of commercially available PLA material. Herein, we utilized a short preheat treatment in ethylene glycol to reduce the surface crystallinity (confirmed via X-ray diffraction analysis) to enable microstructure formation using acetone/water as a solvent/coagulant sequence. The change in wettability from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic has been attributed to an increase in surface roughness, with the change in surface topography confirmed using scanning electron microscopy.