Investigation of the thermostability of poly(ethylene terephthalate)–hemp fiber composites: Extending natural fiber reinforcements to high‐melting thermoplastics

Abstract

The thermal stability of poly(ethylene terephthalate) reinforced with 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20% hemp fibers was investigated with the aim of extending the applications of biocomposites to high-melting thermoplastics. The material was injection-molded following compounding with a torque-based Rheomix at 240, 250, and 2608C. A combination of thermogravimetric methods at 5, 10, and 208C/min, Liu and Yu's collecting temperature method, and Friedman's kinetic method were used for testing and analysis. A significant thermostability for all formulations was observed below 3008C; this demonstrated their potential for successful melt processing. Moreover, two degradation steps were observed in the temperature ranges 313-390 and 390-4908C. The associated apparent activation energies within the temperature ranges were determined as 150-262 and 182-242 kJ/mol, respectively. We found that the thermostability was significantly affected by the heating rates; however, the effect of the temperature of the mixing chamber was negligible. These findings suggest that the successful melt processing of high-melting thermoplastics reinforced with natural fibers is possible with limited fiber thermodegradation.

Development of sustainable biodegradable lignocellulosic hemp fiber/polycaprolactone biocomposites for light weight applications

“…They concluded that addition of additives increased the mechanical properties (elastic modulus and strain at break) of the concerned composite samples. Similarly, Talla et al [32] reported the effect of heating rates on thermostability of the same composite sample. They suggested the possibility of effective melt process of natural fibers/high-melting thermoplastic composites with limited thermal degradation of the reinforcements.…”

Characterization of Plastic Composite Based on HIPS Loaded with Bagasse

“…The absorption bands at 1633 cm -1 , 1425 cm -1 , and 1376 cm -1 are characteristic to the stretching C-C, symmetric bending of C-H respectively. The band at 1029 in the composite sample is attributed to the stretching C-O in the lignocellulosic fibers [10][11][12]28], as displayed in Fig. 1.…”

“…Among these strategies is the modification of bagasse for metal chelation [2], its use for the production of biofuel and ethanol for industrial purposes [3][4][5] or as raw material in cogeneration plants to produce electric power in Brazil [6,7]. On the other hand, the value of sugarcane bagasse wastes was expanded to its utility as filler in cement [8], or as fiber rich additives in many thermoplastic or thermosetting petroleum polymers based composites including phenol-formaldehyde resins, polyethylene, polypropylene, and poly ethylene-co-vinyl acetate [9][10][11][12].…”

Study on enzyme washing process of hemp organic cotton blended fabric

“…However, as hemp itself contains many impurities and the use of semi-degumming process during spinning, many impurities on the fibers cannot be removed, causing the yarn to form thick details or knots. Due to this, the surface of hemp/organic cotton blended fabric has many hairiness with unclear texture, rough handle and low levelness on it (Min, 2011; Talla et al , 2015; Wei and Chen, 2011; Ranalli and Venturi, 2004; Arthur, 2008; Ali et al , 2012; Zeng and Liu, 2014).…”