Influence of Compounding Parameters on the Tensile Properties and Fibre Dispersion of Injection-Moulded Polylactic Acid and Thermomechanical Pulp Fibre Biocomposites
2022 (English)In: Polymers, E-ISSN 2073-4360, Vol. 14, no 20, article id 4432Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Thermomechanical pulp (TMP) fibres can serve as renewable, cost-efficient and lightweight reinforcement for thermoplastic polymers such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA). The reinforcing ability of TMP fibres can be reduced due to various factors, e.g., insufficient dispersion of the fibres in the matrix material, fibre shortening under processing and poor surface interaction between fibres and matrix. A two-level factorial design was created and PLA together with TMP fibres and an industrial and recyclable side stream were processed in a twin-screw microcompounder accordingly. From the obtained biocomposites, dogbone specimens were injection-moulded. These specimens were tensile tested, and the compounding parameters statistically evaluated. Additionally, the analysis included the melt flow index (MFI), a dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and three-dimensional X-ray micro tomography (X- (Formula presented.) CT). The assessment provided insight into the microstructure that could affect the mechanical performance of the biocomposites. The temperature turned out to be the major influence factor on tensile strength and elongation, while no significant difference was quantified for the tensile modulus. A temperature of 180 °C, screw speed of 50 rpm and compounding time of 1 min turned out to be the optimal settings. © 2022 by the authors.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI , 2022. Vol. 14, no 20, article id 4432
Keywords [en]
biocomposite, compounding, material characterisation, wood fibres, Composite materials, Computerized tomography, Fibers, Injection molding, Tensile strength, Thermomechanical pulp, Wood, Compounding parameters, Cost-efficient, Fibre dispersions, Injection moulded, Materials characterization, Pulp fibers, Thermoplastic polymer, Woodfiber, Scanning electron microscopy, Composites, Mixing
National Category
Composite Science and Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-61394DOI: 10.3390/polym14204432Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85140764434OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-61394DiVA, id: diva2:1717514
Note
Funding details: Norges Forskningsråd, 282310; Funding text 1: The Research Council of Norway and the companies supporting the ALLOC project (Grant no. 282310) are thanked for their funding. Thanks to Joni Tanttu and Arttu Miettinen (University of Jyväskyla, Finland) for performing the X-CT analyses included in this work.
2022-12-082022-12-082024-01-17Bibliographically approved