In recent years, the demand for sustainable and degradable materials and electronic devices has increased significantly. Among a range of biodegradable polymers, poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a good alternative to conventional petrol-based polymers because of its attractive mechanical properties and its easy processability. Recently, PLA has also been described as a promising dielectric material with piezoelectric and electret properties. We expect that PLA—after further optimization—will play an important role as a material for environmentally friendly sensors in the future, where first applications such as air filters and pressure sensors have already been proposed. However, degradation under normal ambient conditions is very slow, and an accelerated and controllable degradation process is highly desirable for any type of PLA-based sensors. Enzymatic hydrolysis with embedded enzymes has been proposed as an approach to accelerate and control degradation. In this work, we investigate the properties of PLA in terms of dielectric and mechanical properties with a focus on its ability to store charges after the enzyme proteinase K (Trit. album) has been incorporated. Results reveal that proteinase K has a positive effect on the charge stability of solvent-cast PLA electrets after complete evaporation of the solvent. Furthermore, we observed a concentration-dependent acceleration of mass loss in a Tris-HCl buffer. A fast degradation within only one day occurred at a concentration of 6 wt% proteinase K.

近年来，对可持续和可降解材料和电子设备的需求显着增加。在一系列可生物降解的聚合物中，聚乳酸 (PLA) 因其有吸引力的机械性能和易于加工性而成为传统石油基聚合物的良好替代品。最近，PLA也被描述为一种具有压电和驻极体特性的有前途的介电材料。我们预计，经过进一步优化后，PLA 将在未来作为环保传感器材料发挥重要作用，其中空气过滤器和压力传感器等首批应用已经被提出。然而，正常环境条件下的降解非常缓慢，对于任何类型的基于 PLA 的传感器来说，加速且可控的降解过程都是非常理想的。已提出使用嵌入酶的酶水解作为加速和控制降解的方法。在这项工作中，我们研究了 PLA 的介电和机械性能，重点是其在加入蛋白酶 K ( Trit. album ) 后存储电荷的能力。结果表明，在溶剂完全蒸发后，蛋白酶 K 对溶剂浇铸 PLA 驻极体的电荷稳定性具有积极影响。此外，我们观察到 Tris-HCl 缓冲液中质量损失的浓度依赖性加速。当蛋白酶 K 的浓度为 6 wt% 时，仅一天内即可快速降解。