Polylactide‐recycled wood fiber composites |
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| Authors: | Srikanth Pilla Shaoqin Gong Eric O'Neill Liqiang Yang Roger M. Rowell |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee, Wisconsin;2. Department of Materials, University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee, Wisconsin;3. Forest Products Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Madison, Wisconsin |
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| Abstract: | Polylactide (PLA)‐recycled wood fiber (RWF) composites with a small amount of silane were compounded using a kinetic‐mixer and molded using an injection molding machine. The molded PLA‐RWF composites were characterized using gel permeation chromatography, scanning electron microscope, X‐ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimeter, tensile testing machine, and a dynamic mechanical analyzer. As observed in the stress–strain plots, the amount of necking before fracture decreased with an increasing RWF content. Similarly, the strain‐at‐break also decreased with the RWF content. The tensile strength remained the same irrespective of the RWF content. Both the tensile modulus and the storage modulus of the PLA‐RWF composites increased with the RWF content. The degree of crystallinity of the PLA increased with the addition of RWF. No reduction in the number–average molecular weight (Mn) was observed for pure PLA and PLA‐10%RWF‐0.5%Silane composites after injection molding; however, substantial reduction in Mn was found in PLA‐20%RWF‐0.5%Silane composites. Finally, a theoretical model based on Halpin–Tsai empirical relations is presented to compare the theoretical results with that of the experimental results. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009 |
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| Keywords: | polylactide silane recycled wood fiber composite biobased Halpin– Tsai crystallization molecular weight |
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