Preparation and Properties of Cotton Fiber/Poly(lactic acid) Composites

Abstract

In order to improve the mechanical properties of poly (lactic acid) (PLA), cotton fiber/PLA composites were prepared by melting compounding and injection molding. The effects of cotton fiber content and coupling agent on mechanical properties, crystalline behavior and interface morphology of the composites were studied by universal testing machine, DSC and SEM, respectively. The results showed that the crystallinity of the composites increased gradually with the increase of cotton fiber content, whereas the mechanical properties of the composites increased firstly and then decreased with further addition of cotter fiber. The composite with 20wt% cotton fiber had an optimal mechanical performance. In addition, with the incorporation of 1wt% coupling agent, the interfacial adhesion between cotton fiber and PLA improved obviously, and the mechanical properties of the composites increased accordingly. Compared with the neat PLA, the tensile strength, flexural strength, flexural modulus and impact strength of the resultant composites were increased by 66.0%, 27.4%, 45.8% and 60.4%, respectively.

A review on cotton fibre-reinforced polymer composites and their applications

“…According to research, CF-reinforced thermoplastic composites have remarkable mechanical properties and are finding increasing applications in the automotive and medical fields 2,27 . Qian et al 28 manufactured a CF-reinforced composite with a polylactic acid (PLA) matrix. The composite containing 20% CF has the best mechanical properties according to the findings.…”

“…Effect of cotton fibre (CF) content on (a) tensile (b) flexural and (c) impact properties of CF/ polylactic acid (PLA) composites 28 .…”

Novel Environmentally Friendly Covalent Organic Framework/Polylactic Acid Composite Material with High Chemical Stability for Sand-Control Material

“…The impact resistance strengths of the composites exceeded those of PLA, and thermogravimetric analysis showed that the alkali pretreatment enhanced the thermal stability of the composites. Qian et al [ 20 ] prepared cotton fiber/PLA composites using melt-blending and injection-molding methods and investigated the effects of different fiber content and lengths. The results indicated that the tensile strength and elastic moduli of the composite were maximized at a fiber content of 20 wt%, and they increased by 35.7% and 44.9%, respectively, compared with those of pure PLA.…”