Mechanical and thermal properties of PLA composites with cellulose nanofibers and standard size fibers

Supermolecular structure and nucleation ability of polylactide-based composites with silica/lignin hybrid fillers

“…Various types of nanofillers have been considered as reinforcing agents to PLA matrix in order to enhance thermal resistance, fire resistance and mechanical properties [4]. Among them were fillers such as montmorillonite, sepiolite, halloysite, silica, carbon nanotubes, graphene, nanoceluloses, starch, silver nanoparticles, zinc oxide, as well as titanium dioxide [5][6][7][8][9][10]. The major challenge to develop PLA nanocomposites for advanced technological applications is understanding of the phenomena taking place at the interphase boundary polymer/filler and also supermolecular structure of polymer matrix in composite system.…”

Investigation of injection moulded poly(lactic acid) reinforced with long basalt fibres

“…Moreover, the very slow crystallisation of PLA [4][5][6][7][8] prevents it to be used in high temperature applications due its low glass transition temperature (Tg) around 50-55°C. Since PLA is a thermoplastic polymer, it can be processed by using conventional plastic processing equipments like injection moulding, extrusion, thermoforming, blow, sheet, or compression moulding [9] into products like cutleries, cups, flower pots, food containers, films, toothbrush handles or biomedical implants [10].Although the high strength and stiffness of PLA suggest it to be used in engineering applications, nowadays most PLA products on the market are only related to packaging industry.One of the possibilities of making PLA more suitable for engineering applications is to reinforce it with typically natural plant fibres [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] to keep its renewable resource based and biodegradable feature.There are numerous publications in this field, however in most cases only slight reinforcing effect was demonstrated in injection moulded, plant fibre reinforced biocomposites compared to glass or carbon fibre 3 reinforced composites. This can be attributed to the lower mechanical properties of plant fibres, their curved shape caused not exact orientation, the high variation in their mechanical properties, and to their susceptibility to thermal degradation [20].…”

Creep behaviour of injection-moulded basalt fibre reinforced poly(lactic acid) composites

“…6 In most cases plant fibres and thus renewable resource based fibres are used for composite preparation; in this way the final composite is mostly referred to as biocomposite. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Unfortunately, plant fibres also have some major drawbacks compared to synthetic fibres of glass or carbon, like the higher deviation of the properties of the fibres, which is influenced by the source of the fibre, the age of the plant and the fibre extraction method used. Further drawbacks are the significant water uptake, lower mechanical properties compared to synthetic fibres, and the susceptibility to thermal degradation.…”