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Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

Orellana-Barrasa, JCorresponding AuthorPastor, JyAuthor

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September 12, 2022
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Natural Ageing of PLA Filaments, Can It Be Frozen?

Publicated to: Polymers. 14 (16): 3361- - 2022-08-01 14(16), DOI: 10.3390/polym14163361

Authors:

Orellana-Barrasa, J; Ferrández-Montero, A; Ferrari, B; Pastor, JY
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Affiliations

Inst Ceram & Vidrio CSIC, Campus Cantoblanco, Madrid 28049, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Ctr Invest Mat Estruct CIME, Madrid 28040, Spain - Author

Abstract

The physical ageing of polylactic acid (PLA) is a phenomenon that changes the material's properties over time. This ageing process is highly dependent on ambient variables, such as temperature and humidity. For PLA, the ageing is noticeable even at room temperatures, a process commonly referred to as natural ageing. Stopping the ageing by freezing the material can be helpful to preserve the properties of the PLA and stabilise it at any time during its storage until it is required for testing. However, it is essential to demonstrate that the PLA's mechanical properties are not degraded after defrosting the samples. Four different methods for stopping the ageing (anti-ageing processes) are analysed in this paper-all based on freezing and defrosting the PLA samples. We determine the temperature and ambient water vapor influence during the freezing and defrosting process using desiccant and zip bags. The material form selected is PLA filaments (no bulk material or scaffold structures) printed at 190 degrees C with diameters between 400 and 550 mu m and frozen at -24 degrees C in the presence or absence of a desiccant. The impact of the anti-ageing processes on PLA's ageing and mechanical integrity is studied regarding the thermal, mechanical and fractographical properties. In conclusion, an anti-ageing process is defined to successfully stop the natural ageing of the PLA for an indefinite length of time. This process does not affect the mechanical properties or the structural integrity of the PLA. As a result, large quantities of this material can be produced in a single batch and be safely stored to be later characterised under the same manufacturing and ageing conditions, which is currently a limiting factor from an experimental point of view as polymeric filament properties can show significant variety from batch to batch.
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Keywords

Acid)AgeingClean water and sanitationDegradationDesiccantEnthalpy relaxationFreezingFused filament fabricationGlassy-polymersPhotodegradationPlaPrior historyTemperatureThermal and mechanical properties

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Polymers due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 16/86, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Polymer Science.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations from Scopus Elsevier, it yields a value for the Field-Weighted Citation Impact from the Scopus agency: 1.08, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-27, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 10
  • Scopus: 13
  • Europe PMC: 3
  • Google Scholar: 12
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-27:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 26.

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 11.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/94576/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 30
  • Downloads: 4
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 6 - Clean water and sanitation, with a probability of 68% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (ORELLANA BARRASA, JAIME) and Last Author (PASTOR CAÑO, JOSE YGNACIO ).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been ORELLANA BARRASA, JAIME.

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Project objectives

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo principal analizar el fenómeno del envejecimiento natural del ácido poliláctico (PLA) y evaluar métodos para detenerlo mediante procesos de congelación. Se pretende determinar la influencia de la temperatura y la humedad ambiental durante el congelado y descongelado del PLA, utilizando desecantes y bolsas zip. Además, se busca caracterizar el impacto de estos procesos anti-envejecimiento sobre las propiedades térmicas, mecánicas y fractográficas del material. También se aspira a definir un procedimiento efectivo para detener indefinidamente el envejecimiento natural del PLA sin afectar su integridad estructural ni sus propiedades mecánicas. Finalmente, se pretende facilitar la producción y almacenamiento seguro de grandes cantidades de PLA para su posterior caracterización bajo condiciones controladas.
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Most relevant results

El estudio aborda el fenómeno del envejecimiento natural del ácido poliláctico (PLA) y la posibilidad de detenerlo mediante congelación. Los resultados más relevantes son: (1) se analizaron cuatro métodos de congelación y descongelación para detener el envejecimiento del PLA; (2) la influencia de la temperatura y la humedad ambiental durante estos procesos fue evaluada usando bolsas con desecante y sin él; (3) el PLA filamentoso impreso a 190 °C y congelado a -24 °C mantuvo sus propiedades mecánicas y estructurales tras el proceso; (4) se definió un proceso anti-envejecimiento que detiene el envejecimiento natural indefinidamente sin afectar la integridad del material; (5) este método permite almacenar grandes cantidades de PLA con propiedades estables para posteriores análisis bajo condiciones homogéneas.
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Awards linked to the item

This research was funded by The Spanish Government under contract PID2019-106631GB-C42 and C44 (MICINN/FEDER, UE); and Madrid Regional Government under contract P2018/NMT4411 ADITIMAT-CM (Comunidad de Madrid/FEDER, UE). Jaime Orellana Barrasa thanks the FPU17/02035 scholarship provided by the Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte of Spain and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid.
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