Development of biodegradable composites based on wood waste flour and thermoplastic starch

Abstract

Biodegradable composites were prepared from wood flour of sawmill residues and a thermoplastic starch (Mater-Bi TM and glycerol). For the preparation of the composites flour from sawmills of four wood species (spruce, pine, beech and poplar), three particle sizes (<150, 150-250, and 250-750 lm) and in six proportions (10,20,30, 40, 50, and 60% wt) was used. The composites were characterized by means of mechanical property measurements, scanning electron microscopy, water absorption, thermal stability and biodegradation studies. Addition of wood flour to thermoplastic starch increased significantly tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, elongation and thermal stability and decreased water absorption and biodegradation rate of the composites. Almost all the properties of the composites increased with increasing wood flour content and decreasing particle size of the flour. Tensile strength increased up to 50% wt but decreased at 60% wt content of wood flour. The softwood species (spruce, pine) gave better mechanical, thermal and water absorption properties, but lower biodegradation rate than the hardwood species (beech, poplar).

Thermoplastic Starch/Wood Composites: Effect of Processing Technology, Interfacial Interactions and Particle Characteristics

“…According to the existing literature a relatively small number of papers have been published which consider the practical relevance of TPS/wood composites [7,[41][42][43][44][45][46]. There are even fewer paper about systematic experiments carried out as a function of fiber content in a wide composition range [2,41,42], furthermore, it is very difficult to find publications on the effect of processing methods on the properties of TPS/wood composites.…”

“…There are even fewer paper about systematic experiments carried out as a function of fiber content in a wide composition range [2,41,42], furthermore, it is very difficult to find publications on the effect of processing methods on the properties of TPS/wood composites. In our earlier work we investigated different TPS/wood composites prepared by injection molding [47].…”

“…Most of them study the influence of fiber type and amount usually by determining properties at one or two fiber contents. All kinds of fibers have been used as filler in TPS including various forms of cellulose [6,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], jute [18,[25][26][27], sisal [28][29][30][31][32][33], wheat straw [13], flax [23,34] hemp [13,28,35,36], cotton [13,37,38], flax [19,39], ramie [20,40].According to the existing literature a relatively small number of papers have been published which consider the practical relevance of TPS/wood composites [7,[41][42][43][44][45][46]. There are even fewer paper about systematic experiments carried out as a function of fiber content in a wide composition range [2,41,…”

Thermoplastic starch/wood composites: Interfacial interactions and functional properties

“…All kinds of fibers have been used as reinforcement in TPS including various forms of cellulose (Avérous et al 2001 (natural cellulose fibers from leafwood); Ayadi & Dole 2011 (natural cellulose fibers from leafwood); Benezet et al 2012 (wheat straw fibers, hemp fibers, cotton linter fibers); Curvelo et al 2001 (bleach pulp fiber); Ma et al 2005 (micro winceyette fibers) ;Martins et al 2009 (bacterial cellulose and vegetable cellulose fibers); Muller et al 2009;Soykeabkaew et al 2012 (bacterial cellulose); Soykeabkaew et al 2004 (jute and flax fibers); Sreekala et al 2008), jute (Soykeabkaew et al 2012;Torres et al 2007;Wollerdorfer & Bader 1998), sisal (Girones et al 2012;Sreekumar et al 2010a;Sreekumar et al 2010b;Torres et al 2007;Wang et al 2012), wheat straw (Benezet et al 2012), hemp (Benezet et al 2012;Girones et al 2012;Kunanopparat et al 2008;Ochi 2006), cotton (Benezet et al 2012;Moriana et al 2010;Prachayawarakorn et al 2010), flax (Saiah et al 2009;Soykeabkaew et al 2004), ramie (Lu et al 2006;Sreekala et al 2008), etc. Somewhat less papers deal with TPS/wood composites (Abbott et al 2012;Agnantopoulou et al 2012;Avérous & Boquillon 2004;Chakraborty et al 2007;Kuciel et al 2012;Kuciel & Liber-Knec 2009), although wood is cheaper and simpler to handle during processing. Some of the...…”

Rheological Properties of Natural Fiber Polymer Composites

“…Wood plastic composites (WPCs) [2][3][4] are by far regarded as an environmentallyfriendly approach of using waste wood and recycled plastic materials, including polyethylene (PE), polyvinylchloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), polylactide (PLA), and so forth. As compared to the solid wood, WPCs need substantially low maintenance cost.…”