Mechanical and degradation properties of successive alkali treated completely biodegradable sisal fiber reinforced poly lactic acid composites

Abstract

The natural fiber reinforced biodegradable polymer composites were prepared with short sisal fiber as reinforcement in poly lactic acid (PLA) matrix. The sisal fiber is treated with 10% NaOH followed by H 2 O 2 . The composites were prepared with untreated and treated short sisal fibers at different weight proportions up to 25% in PLA matrix and investigated for mechanical and degradation properties. The results showed that the composite with treated fiber at 20% fiber loading has shown 30% and 8% higher tensile strength than neat PLA and untreated sisal/PLA composite, respectively. The flexural strength of treated sisal fiber composite at same weight fraction was 17% higher than that of plain PLA. The impact strength of composite with untreated fibers at 25% fiber loading was 107% high compared to that of neat PLA whereas the impact strength of treated sisal composite was reduced with increased fiber loading. The water absorption was high for untreated sisal/PLA composite compared to all other composites in the present study. Untreated sisal/PLA composite has high thermal degradation temperature compared to composite with treated fibers but lower than that of pure PLA. The enzymatic environment has increased the rate of degradation of composites. Surface morphology of tensile fractured and soil degraded surfaces of the composites were observed using scanning electron microscopy.

The effect of nanomodified epoxy on the tensile and flexural properties of Napier fiber reinforced composites

“…As can be noted from the SEM images, the treated Napier fibers showed a rougher outer surface than the untreated fibers. This was due to the treatment which removed the impurities, lignin, oil, and waxy substances that cover the external fiber surface, which led to fibrillation, creating a rougher topography and thus enabling them to bind strongly with the epoxy resin . As a result, the fiber/epoxy adhesion was enhanced after the chemical treatment.…”

A critical review on erosion wear characteristics of polymer matrix composites

“…The results revealed that erosion resistance of treated samples is 20%-30% lower than untreated samples for 60°impact angle. Chemical treatment of natural fibers intended to improve the adhesion with polymer matrices were reported by numerous researchers [80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88]. However they had used different chemicals in their studies.…”

Effect of Poly(Lactic Acid)/Kenaf Composites Incorporated with Thymol on the Antimicrobial Activity of Processed Meat

“…; Rajesh et al . ; Xia et al . ), there are limited reports on the combination of bio‐based polymers with natural fibers and AM agents in packaging applications.…”

“…Although there are many studies that suggest PLA is a suitable matrix for the incorporation of natural fibers in biocomposites (Awal et al 2015;Rajesh et al 2015;Xia et al 2015), there are limited reports on the combination of biobased polymers with natural fibers and AM agents in packaging applications. In one example, the inhibition of E. coli in liquid media by PLA/triclosan films a was enhanced when the film was incorporated with 10% w/w wood fibers (Prapruddivongs and Sombatsompop 2012).…”