The lowest peak intensity in the WAXS study was obtained for
PLA/T/D43B2.5. The presence of thymol could favour nanoclay
exfoliation and the effective interaction between the silicate layers
and thymol, which could promote the swelling of the nanoclay
stacks (Persico et al., 2009). However, the formulations with
5 wt% of D43B showed more intense peaks. This behaviour could
be due to the unfavourable effect of nanoclay swelling, produced
by thymol at high nanoclay loading. In conclusion, WAXS results
suggest effective nanoclay intercalation achieved by mixing PLA
with 2.5 wt% of D43B and 8 wt% of thymol.