STRUCTURAL QUALITY BIOCOMPOSITES OF TREATED FLAX FIBER WITH EPOXIDIZED SUCROSE SOYATE RESIN

摘要

Looming scarcity of sources for petrochemical-based materials, as well as the associated high costs, has spurred interest in renewable sources for use in functional and structural materials. A major hurdle to this aspiration is the necessity of maintaining the properties delivered by petrochemical based materials while replacing them with biobased analogs. To date, little success has been seen in efforts to achieve composites having the properties required of structural applications through the incorporation of biobased fibers and fillers into purely biobased resins. As a general rule, achieving high levels of performance has required extensive modification and dilution of the biobased resin. For instance, the addition of acrylate groups to epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) is a frequently employed method of improving its properties [1]. This acrylated ESO is then usually further blended with up to 35 wt% petrochemical based monomers such as styrene [2]. Additional modifications that have been employed include hydroxylation, maleinization, and phthalation [3]. While the final products of such efforts are resins of acceptable properties, these strategies also result in significant dilution of their renewable content. The number of steps required to accomplish such modest gains in renewability likely prompts many to raise questions as to the practicality of such efforts.