Natural fiber-reinforced biogenic polymer composites have been promising materials for packaging, furniture, and other applications due to their environmentally friendly and cost-effective characteristics. However, certain properties, including mechanical properties, still need to be improved. In this work, polylactic acid (PLA) was modified with a range of epoxy soybean oil (ESO) concentrations, and straw fibers were added to the plasticized PLA. The functional groups of various compositions were investigated via FTIR and the effects of SF and ESO on the impact, flexural and tensile intensities were evaluated. The composites’ thermal stability performance was examined via TG and DSC analysis. The results showed that chemical bonds were formed between PLA and ESO, with the possibility of H-bonding between the -OH group on the molecular chains of SF and PLA and the ethylene oxide group of ESO. The mechanical intensity of material can be enhanced after adding a small amount of ESO (<4%), while the SF addition has the opposite result. The addition of both ESO and straw fibers decreased the thermal transition temperature (Tg, Tc, and Tm) and the degree of PLA crystallinity. Meanwhile, SF was beneficial for improving the thermal decomposition temperature.
The bending and impact properties of interlayer hybrid curved laminates reinforced with woven Kevlar and basalt fabrics and manufactured by a hand lay-up process with epoxy resin were studied. The results of the investigation showed that the interlayer arrangement of fabrics significantly affects the impact and bending properties of the composite. The placement of Kevlar fibres on the impact side can increase the impact and flexural strengths. In addition, the use of basalt fabric on the impact reverse side or multi-layer hybrid structuring further improves the impact properties of the materials. A sandwich-structure composite with basalt layers in the middle and Kevlar layers on both sides shows further improvement in the bending properties. This hybrid composite combines the good mechanical properties of inorganic brittle fibres with the excellent impact resistance of organic ductile fibres and can provide design concepts for sports equipment such as helmets.
The increasing use of high-value carbon fibre in composites is linked with increasing waste generation. A simple and
feasible chopped/hot-press method was proposed for multiple recycled carbon fibre-reinforced thermoplastic
composites. The effect of regeneration times on the tension and impact properties of carbon fibre-reinforced
polypropylene thermoplastic composites was investigated experimentally. The results showed that the r1-CFRTP
specimen decreased by 69.34% in tensile strength and 48.66 % in tensile modulus compared with v-CFRTP. However,
its tensile properties were improved with the increase of regeneration times (before 3 times). The impact strength of
r2-CFRTP and r3-CFRTP is 12.65%, 20.85% higher than v-CFRTP, while r1-CFRTP and r4-CFRTP are 8.02% and
7.06% lower than v-CFRTP. When the third regeneration makes relatively excellent mechanical properties for recycled
carbon fibre/PP composite, the chopped/hot-press method is a meaningful attempt at recycling and reusing the
thermoplastic composites.
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