3. Cellulosic textile fibres reinforced fully biodegradable composites and their mechanical characteristics

摘要

Polymer matrix composite are mostly manufactured using synthetic fibres and binders system (glass, carbon, aramid and other petroleum based resources) for different applications. Disposal of these composites, at the end of their service life, becomes an environmental issue, as they are not biodegradable. The prime aim of this study is to develop durable, energy efficient and fully biodegradable green composites and to understand its performance and potential for application. To realize the goal, laboratory experiments were performed optimized process parameters and fabricated green composites using cellulosic textile fibres (banana, flax and sisal) with polylactic acid (PLA) under compression molding and evaluated the tensile and flexural properties. Interpretation of the results indicates that tensile strength of cellulosic textile fibres composite (CTFC) such as banana, flax and sisal with PLA matrix exhibits (with 25-30% textile fibres content) 62.87 ± 7.61 MPa, 74.84 ± 6.60 MPa, and 67.38 ± 6.5 MPa respectively. The percentage increase in the tensile strength of CTFC over neat PLA is 37-63%. The flexural strength of CFTC showed 107.06 ± 1.61MPa, 120.25 ± 8.6 MPa and 125.96 ± 6.63 MPa with the reinforcement of banana, flax and sisal textile respectively. Interestingly, density (1.27-1.38g/cc) and tensile elongation (1.71-1.77%) of CTFC has not showed major variation over neat PLA. The findings of this study reflect a new outlook to use cellulose rich vegetative textile fibres over non-textile fibres in composites for possible eco-friendly architectural interior panels in building construction, transport system and alternative for synthetic wood, plastic, glass fibres composites and domestic goods.