Team:RHIT/Sustainability

To a 1 L Erlenmeyer flask add:

• 5.0 g shredded PLA
• 5.6 g NaOH pellets
• 50 mL DI water
• Stir bar

Stir reaction, heating to 50-60°C, overnight or until all plastic has visibly dissolved.

Neutralize with HCl to a pH of 5-6.

Vacuum filter solution 2-3 times, dispose of any solid collected.

Using a sterile syringe, filter solution into a jar to store until needed.

The filtered solution was measured in a polarimer. The optical rotation results are as follows.

pH	Optical Rotation
2.5	.12
3.5	-.13
4.21	-.26

This suggests that the solution did in fact contain lactate because a pH change made a significant difference in the optical rotation of the solution.