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Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances

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A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomacromolecules, Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2018) | Viewed by 42615

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Rodolphe Sonnier

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Polymers, Composites, Hybrids (PCH), IMT Mines Ales, 6 avenue de Clavières, 30319 Alès, CEDEX, France
Interests: fire behavior; flame retardants; degradation; polymeric materials; fire safety engineering; polymers; materials chemistry; polymer blends; pyrolysis; ionizing radiation
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Dr. Henri Vahabi

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Optical Materials, Photonics and Systems Laboratory (LMOPS), Université de Lorraine, F-57000 Metz, France
Interests: flame retardancy; thermal degradation; biobased flame retardants; biopolymers; aging of flame retardant and polymers; fiber-reinforced composites
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Dr. Nicolas Le Moigne

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Polymers Composites and Hybrids (PCH), IMT Mines Ales, 6 avenue de Clavières, 30319 Alès, CEDEX, France
Interests: (nano)biocomposites; processing; plant cells; polysaccharides; biomass valorization; surfaces & interfaces
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, natural fibres are considered as alternative bio-based reinforcements to synthetic fibres for composite applications. Indeed, natural fibres have many attractive advantages: renewability, biodegradability, good availability, low cost, low density, low abrasiveness, and they exhibit high specific stiffness and strength, in some cases as high as glass fibres, combined with interesting damping properties.

Nevertheless, natural fibres also have some drawbacks as their flammability, low thermal stability, sensitivity to moisture and polar character lead to poor compatibility with hydrophobic polymer matrices. Therefore, modifications of natural fibres are required in order to target demanding technical and high performing applications.

This Special Issue proposes to gather a series of articles dealing with the modification and control of annual plant fibres or wood properties for polymer composite applications. Indeed, composite properties can be controlled through various functionalization or impregnation treatments of plant fibres and wood, including chemical, enzymatic and physical treatments, such as ionizing radiations. Bulk and surface impregnation and grafting, coating, as well as modification of surface roughness, can be considered as strategies to enhance plant fibres, wood and resulting composites performances. Besides, relationships between specific biochemical and structural characteristics of plant fibres and wood and the efficiency of the modification and functionalization treatments are key issues (e.g., grafting regio-selectivity, interactions of functionalizing molecules with ligno-cellulosic substrates, …).

The targeted properties could be flame retardancy, thermo-mechanical performances, improved resistance to water or other ageing conditions (non-exhaustive list). Modifications of plant fibres allowing their easier processing, or their incorporation into new performing polymer matrices, will also be considered.

The contributing authors must pay special attention to the detailed description of changes occurring in modified plant fibres or wood as regard to their composition, structure, morphology and the resulting properties. Composite properties are not necessarily required if the modifications or functionalizations applied clearly contribute to further development in composite applications.

Dr. Rodolphe Sonnier
Dr. Henri Vahabi
Dr. Nicolas Le Moigne
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Natural fibres
Biocomposite
Fibre functionalization
Fibre grafting
Fibre coating
Biocomposite performances

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 4896 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mitigating the Impact of Cellulose Particles on the Performance of Biopolyester-Based Composites by Gas-Phase Esterification

by Grégoire David, Nathalie Gontard and Hélène Angellier-Coussy

Polymers 2019, 11(2), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11020200 - 24 Jan 2019

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 3546

Abstract

Materials that are both biodegradable and bio-sourced are becoming serious candidates for substituting traditional petro-sourced plastics that accumulate in natural systems. New biocomposites have been produced by melt extrusion, using bacterial polyester (poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)) as a matrix and cellulose particles as fillers. In this study, gas-phase esterified cellulose particles, with palmitoyl chloride, were used to improve filler-matrix compatibility and reduce moisture sensitivity. Structural analysis demonstrated that intrinsic properties of the polymer matrix (crystallinity, and molecular weight) were not more significantly affected by the incorporation of cellulose, either virgin or grafted. Only a little decrease in matrix thermal stability was noticed, this being limited by cellulose grafting. Gas-phase esterification of cellulose improved the filler’s dispersion state and filler/matrix interfacial adhesion, as shown by SEM cross-section observations, and limiting the degradation of tensile properties (stress and strain at break). Water vapor permeability, moisture, and liquid water uptake of biocomposites were increased compared to the neat matrix. The increase in thermodynamic parameters was limited in the case of grafted cellulose, principally ascribed to their increased hydrophobicity. However, no significant effect of grafting was noticed regarding diffusion parameters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances)

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13 pages, 21122 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Chemical Modification on Mechanical Properties of Wood-Plastic Composite Injection-Molded Parts

by Joo Seong Sohn and Sung Woon Cha

Polymers 2018, 10(12), 1391; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10121391 - 15 Dec 2018

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 7378

Abstract

Wood chips from furniture-manufacturing byproducts, which do not include adhesive or paint in the waste wood, were used for the flouring process and chemical modification of wood flour (WF). After chemical modification, the WF was mixed with polypropylene through extrusion compounding and injection-molding to prepare wood-plastic composite (WPC) injection-molded specimens for the American Society for Testing and Materials. Static contact angle measurements and stereomicroscope observations were performed. In this study, it was confirmed that the impact strength was improved by up to 55.8% and the tensile strength by up to 33.8%. The flexural modulus decreased marginally. As a result of WF chemical modification, the measured contact angle of WPC increased, which means that the wettability of the WPC specimen surface decreased. In addition, it was observed through stereomicroscopy that the whitening of the surface of the WPC specimen improved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances)

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16 pages, 4616 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Different Compatibilizers on Sustainable Composites Based on a PHBV/PBAT Matrix Filled with Coffee Silverskin

by Fabrizio Sarasini, Francesca Luzi, Franco Dominici, Gianluca Maffei, Annalaura Iannone, Antonio Zuorro, Roberto Lavecchia, Luigi Torre, Alfredo Carbonell-Verdu, Rafael Balart and Debora Puglia

Polymers 2018, 10(11), 1256; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10111256 - 12 Nov 2018

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 4373

Abstract

This work investigates the feasibility of using coffee silverskin (CSS), one of the most abundant coffee waste products, as a reinforcing agent in biopolymer-based composites. The effect of using two compatibilizers, a maleinized linseed oil (MLO) and a traditional silane (APTES, (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane), on mechanical and thermal behavior of sustainable composites based on a poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate/Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) PBAT/PHBV blend filled with coffee silverskin, in both the as-received state and after the extraction of antioxidants, was studied. Thermal (by differential scanning calorimetry), mechanical (by tensile testing), and morphological properties (by scanning electron microscopy) of injection molded biocomposites at three different weight contents (10, 20, and 30 wt %) were considered and discussed as a function of compatibilizer type. The effects of extraction procedure and silane treatment on surface properties of CSS were investigated by infrared spectroscopy. Obtained results confirmed that extracted CSS and silane-treated CSS provided the best combination of resistance properties and ductility, while MLO provided a limited compatibilization effect with CSS, due to the reduced amount of hydroxyl groups on CSS after extraction, suggesting that the effects of silane modification were more significant than the introduction of plasticizing agent. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances)

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26 pages, 9061 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Friction Performance of Aged T-BFRP Composite for Bearing Applications

by Umar Nirmal

Polymers 2018, 10(10), 1066; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10101066 - 25 Sep 2018

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2623

Abstract

The current work is an attempt to reduce friction coefficient of the treated betelnut fibre reinforced polyester (T-BFRP) composites by aging them in twelve different solutions with different kinematic viscosities. The test will be performed on a pin on disc (POD) wear test rig using different applied loads (5–30 N), different sliding distances (0–6.72 km) at sliding speed of 2.8 m/s subjected to a smooth stainless steel counterface (AISI-304). Different orientations of the fibre mats such as anti-parallel (AP) and parallel (P) orientations subjected to the rotating counterface will be considered. The worn surfaces were examined through optical microscopy imaging and it was found that the aged specimens had significantly lower damages as compared to neat polyester (NP) and the unaged samples. Besides, P-O samples revealed lower friction coefficients as compared to AP-O, i.e., reduction was about 24.71%. Interestingly, aging solutions with lower kinematic viscosities revealed lower friction coefficients of the aged T-BFRP composites when compared to the ones aged in higher kinematic viscosities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances)

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14 pages, 3650 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Content and Surface Modification of Fique Fibers on the Properties of a Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE)-Al/Fique Composite

by Mario Fernando Muñoz-Vélez, Miguel Angel Hidalgo-Salazar and Jose Herminsul Mina-Hernández

Polymers 2018, 10(10), 1050; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10101050 - 20 Sep 2018

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3649

Abstract

This work presents the physical-thermal and mechanical characterization of a low-density polyethylene (LDPE)-Al matrix composite material that was obtained from reinforcing recycled (post-consumer) long-life Tetra Pak packages with fique natural fibers from southwestern Colombia. The fique was subjected to three chemical treatments to modify its surface (alkalinization, silanization and pre-impregnation with polyethylene) to increase the quality of its interfaces. Additionally, panels with 10%, 20%, and 30% v/v of fiber were manufactured by the hot compression molding. The mechanical properties of the different composite materials showed that the pre-impregnation treatment promoted a significant increase in the tensile and flexural properties with respect to the fiber-reinforced composite without surface modification. Additionally, in materials with 30% fibers that were treated with pre-impregnation, there was a decrease in the water absorption capacity of 53.15% when compared to composites made with 30% native fibers. Finally, increases in the fiber content mainly caused better mechanical performances, which increased as a direct function of the amount of fique incorporated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances)

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12 pages, 4168 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hyperbranched Liquid Crystals Modified with Sisal Cellulose Fibers for Reinforcement of Epoxy Composites

by Qiyun Luo, Yuqi Li, Li Ren, Xu Xu and Shaorong Lu

Polymers 2018, 10(9), 1024; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10091024 - 14 Sep 2018

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3924

Abstract

Well-defined functionalized sisal cellulose fibers (SCFs) grafted on hyperbranched liquid crystals (HLP) were synthesized to improve the compatibility between SCFs and epoxy resin (EP). The influence of SCFs-HLP on the mechanical and thermal properties of SCFs-HLP/EP composites was studied. The results show that the mechanical properties of SCFs-HLP/EP composites were enhanced distinctly. Particularly, compared with EP, impact strength, tensile strength, and flexural strength of composites with 4.0 wt % SCFs-HLP were 38.3 KJ·m⁻², 86.2 MPa, and 150.7 MPa, increasing by 118.7%, 55.6%, and 89.6%, respectively. As well, the glass transition temperature of the composite material increased by 25 °C. It is hope that this work will inform ongoing efforts to exploit more efficient methods to overcome the poor natural fiber/polymer adhesion in the interface region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances)

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20 pages, 6915 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Biocomposites Based on Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate-co-3-Hydroxyvalerate) (PHBHV) and Miscanthus giganteus Fibers with Improved Fiber/Matrix Interface

by Erica Gea Rodi, Valérie Langlois, Estelle Renard, Vittorio Sansalone and Thibault Lemaire

Polymers 2018, 10(5), 509; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10050509 - 07 May 2018

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4404

Abstract

In this paper, green biocomposites based on poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBHV) and Miscanthus giganteus fibers (MIS) were prepared in the presence of dicumyl peroxide (DCP) via reactive extrusion. The objective of this study was to optimize the interfacial adhesion between the reinforcement and the matrix, improving the mechanical properties of the final material. To this aim, two fibers mass fractions (5 and 20 wt %) and two different fiber sizes obtained by two opening mesh sieves (1 mm and 45 μm) were investigated. The impregnation of fibers with DCP before processing was carried out in order to promote the PHBHV grafting onto MIS fibers during the process, favoring, in this way, the interfacial adhesion between fibers and matrix, instead of the crosslinking of the matrix. All composites were realized by extrusion and injection molding processing and then characterized by tensile tests, FTIR-ATR, SEM, DSC and XRD. According to the improved adhesion of fibers to matrix due to DCP, we carried out an implementation of models involving that can predict the effective mechanical properties of the biocomposites. Three phases were taken into account here: fibers, gel (crosslinked matrix), and matrix fractions. Due to the complexity of the system (matrix–crosslinked matrix–fibers) and to the lack of knowledge about all the phenomena occurring during the reactive extrusion, a mathematical approach was considered in order to obtain information about the modulus of the crosslinked matrix and its fraction in the composites. This study aims to estimate these last values, and to clarify the effect caused by the presence of vegetal fibers in a composite in which different reactions are promoted by DCP. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances)

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18 pages, 3989 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mussel-Inspired Polydopamine as a Green, Efficient, and Stable Platform to Functionalize Bamboo Fiber with Amino-Terminated Alkyl for High Performance Poly(butylene succinate) Composites

by Gonghua Hong, Haitao Cheng, Yang Meng, Jianyong Lin, Zhenghao Chen, Shuangbao Zhang and Wei Song

Polymers 2018, 10(4), 461; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10040461 - 22 Apr 2018

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 7865

Abstract

A new and eco-friendly mussel-inspired surface modification pathway for bamboo fiber (BF) is presented in this study. The self-assembly polydopamine (PDA) coating can firmly adhere on BF surface, which also serves as a bridge to graft octadecylamine (ODA) for hydrophobic surface preparation. The as-formed PDA/ODA hybrid layer could supply abundant hydrophobic long-chain alkyls groups and generated a marked increase in BF surface roughness and a marked decrease in surface free energy. These changes provided advantages to improve fiber–matrix interfacial adhesion and wettability. Consequently, high performance was achieved by incorporating the hybrid modified BF into the polybutylene succinate (PBS) matrix. The resultant composite exhibited excellent mechanical properties, particularly tensile strength, which markedly increased by 77.2%. Meanwhile, considerable high water resistance with an absorption rate as low as 5.63% was also achieved. The gratifying macro-performance was primarily attributed to the excellent interfacial adhesion attained by hydrogen bonding and physical intertwining between the PDA/ODA coating on the BF and the PBS matrix, which was further determined by fracture morphology observations and dynamic mechanical analysis. Owing to the superior adhesive capacity of PDA, this mussel-inspired surface modification method may result in wide-ranging applications in polymer composites and be adapted to all natural fibers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances)

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12 pages, 4079 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of SiO₂ Content on the Extended Creep Behavior of SiO₂-Based Wood-Inorganic Composites Derived via the Sol–Gel Process Using the Stepped Isostress Method

by Ke-Chang Hung and Jyh-Horng Wu

Polymers 2018, 10(4), 409; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym10040409 - 06 Apr 2018

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3950

Abstract

In this study, methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMOS) was used as a reagent to prepare SiO₂-based wood-inorganic composites (WIC_SiO₂) via the sol-gel process, and subsequently, the extended creep behaviors of WIC_SiO₂ with weight percent gains (WPGs) of 10%, 20%, and 30% were estimated using the stepped isostress method (SSM). The results revealed that the density of all samples ranged from 426 to 513 kg/m³, and no significant difference in the modulus of elasticity (MOE) was noted among all of the samples (10.5–10.7 GPa). However, the MOR of WIC_SiO₂ with a WPG of 20% (102 MPa) was significantly greater than that of untreated wood (87 MPa). In addition, according to the result using the SSM, the SSM-predicted creep master curve fitted well with the experimental data for the untreated wood and WIC_SiO₂. This result demonstrated that the SSM could be a useful method to evaluate long-term creep behaviors of wood and WIC_SiO₂. Furthermore, the activation volume (V*) of the specimens was calculated from the linear slope of Eyring plots, and the resulting V* of all of the WIC_SiO₂ (0.754–0.842 nm³) was lower than that of untreated wood (0.856 nm³). On the other hand, the modulus reduction of untreated wood showed 39%, 45%, 48%, and 51% at 5, 15, 30, and 50 years, respectively. In contrast, the modulus reduction of the WIC_SiO₂ with a WPG of 10% decreased to 25%, 31%, 35%, and 38% at 5, 15, 30, and 50 years, respectively. Similar trends were also observed for other WIC_SiO₂ with different WPGs. Of these, the WIC_SiO₂ with a WPG of 20% exhibited the lowest reduction in time-dependent modulus (31%) over a 50-year period. Accordingly, the creep resistance of the wood could be effectively enhanced under the MTMOS treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Modification of Natural Fibres to Improve Biocomposites Performances)

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