Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most applied synthesized degradable polymer materials and is hopeful to substitute polyolefine to be used in general plastic products. However

due to the particular viscoelastic responses resulting from the relaxation characteristic of PLA resin

the low melt strength of PLA causes the instability during processing

and the instability in size and properties of the products

which limits the development of PLA products. Moreover

PLA is usually amorphous after processing owing to its extremely slow crystallization rate in conventional processing conditions in extrusion and injection molding with high cooling rates. The extremely slow crystallization rate and low crystallinity of PLA result in poor processability and performance

which has become the bottleneck of PLA for large-scale commercial applications. Tailoring crystallization of PLA

including crystallinity and crystalline polymorphism

can achieve high performance of PLA. Based on the enhancement of processability of PLA

this paper gives a review on the controlling of melt viscoelasticity

crystallization rate and stereocomplex crystallization during processing of PLA.