Abstract
Biocomposites combine renewable, plant-based fibers with degradable polymers and are an attractive option for sustainable, lightweight, and cost-effective materials with a low carbon footprint, especially for large-scale additive manufacturing. One of the major challenges in the widespread adoption of biocomposites is that their mechanical performance is significantly inferior to that of synthetic composites. Surface treatment is a common and effective technique to improve the mechanical properties of the biofibers used in biocomposites. This study aims to investigate the physical and flow properties of surface-treated biofibers, as well as the tensile properties of their PLA-based biocomposite, to gain insights into how surface treatment changes the fiber’s characteristics and biocomposite’s mechanical properties. Surface treatment was created using a two-component epoxy system by reacting poly(bisphenol A-co-epichlorohydrin) glycidyl end-capped (PBG) and dicyandiamide (DICY). The treatment was tested on two different biofibers (loblolly pine and corn stover fibers) with three different PBG/DICY molar ratios (0.25, 0.5, and 2). Results showed that surface-treated fibers improved the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the biocomposites. Loblolly pine biocomposites from fibers treated with a PBG/DICY ratio of 0.25 exhibited the best tensile properties. The surface treatment resulted in a more loosely dispersed fiber bulk structure, as evidenced by less fiber agglomeration into smaller particle sizes, higher fiber sphericity, and lower loose bulk density. This can enhance stress distribution and the overall mechanical performance of the biocomposites. Additionally, surface-treated fibers exhibited better dynamic flow properties.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1447-1458 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of the ASABE |
Volume | 67 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2024 |
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technology Office (DOE-BETO). This work was partly supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, and Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) under the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) program. This manuscript was authored in part by UT-Battelle LLC under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with DOE. The US government retains, and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
Keywords
- Fiber size and shape
- Fiber surface roughness
- Flow properties
- PLA-based biocomposite
- Surface treatment