Study on the mechanical and thermal properties of poly(lactic acid)/office waste paper fiber composites

Abstract

Environment friendly composites with favorable mechanical properties and low water absorption performance were successfully produced from poly(lactic acid) (PLA), office waste paper fiber (OWF), and coupling agents. The perfect sample was easily manufactured by melting–blending and injection molding. The PLA/OWF composites were comparable with other PLA/plant fiber composites, and the results indicated that the PLA/OWF composites show better performance than PLA/wheat straw fiber composites and PLA/bamboo fiber composites. On this basis, influence of modification of OWF on the properties of composites was investigated. The infrared results show that the OWF modification by different coupling agents was successful, and the scanning electron microscopy indicates that prepared composites exhibit good interfacial compatibility due to preferable binding force between fiber and matrix. With addition of 2 wt% γ‐(2,3‐propylene oxides)propyl trimethylsilane, the composite exhibits high tensile strength of 58.96 MPa, reflecting increase of 14% than the pure PLA. According to the crystallization and melting performance table, OWF can act as nucleating agent to promote the crystallization properties on composites, while the coupling agents have little effect on thermal stability. This article confirmed that the OWF has appropriate properties and is suitable for preparing composite materials and this work provides a novel idea for the utilization of office waste paper.

Effects of Rice Straw Powder (RSP) Size and Pretreatment on Properties of FDM 3D-Printed RSP/Poly(lactic acid) Biocomposites

“…It can be seen that pure RSP began to decompose at a much lower temperature than PLA, and the introduction of RSP into the PLA matrix accelerated the decomposition of PLA and thus caused weaker PLA thermal properties. This effect has been proved in previous studies [8,21]. In general, however, the decomposition behavior of the 120# RSP/PLA composite was much similar to that of pure PLA than the other composites.…”

Reinforcing effect of nanocrystalline cellulose and office waste paper fibers on mechanical and thermal properties of poly (lactic acid) composites

“…Some related functional groups have been characterized in the figure. 27 The spectra of OWF and NCC exhibit a broad band in the region about 3400 cm −1 standing for the free O H stretching vibration of the OH groups in cellulose molecules. Moreover, the peak at 1643 and 1648 cm −1 is related to the bending vibration of water absorption and oxygencontaining group.…”

Effects of different interfacial modifiers on the properties of digital printing waste paper fiber/nanocrystalline cellulose/poly(lactic acid) composites

“…where 𝛥𝐻 𝑚 , Φ and 𝛥𝐻 𝑚 0 are the melting enthalpy of the composite, mass fraction of PLA in the composite, and the theoretical enthalpy of fully crystallized PLA, which is 93.7 J/g [17,20] , respectively…”

“…Among which, the lower one corresponds to crystalline melting with low perfection and thinner lamella and the higher peak is related to the melting of more perfect recrystallized crystals [32] . It can be seen from Table 2 that the crystallinity of the modified composites is improved, because the addition of modifier promotes the movement of the PLA molecular chain segment, which enables the molecular chain in the crystal region of the composite to regularly arrange [17] .…”