engleski

Glass fiber and powder filled polylactic acid composites - physical and structural properties

An effective solution to the negative environmental impact of synthetic polymers includes their replacement with biopolymers (such as starch, cellulose, chitosan, zein or gelatin) derived from renewable resources. While biopolymers offer many advantages in terms of production and performance, but their unfavourable property is mainly related to their poor mechanical characteristics. To overcome this drawback and produce an environmentally friendly polymer with superior physiochemical properties, various composites with different combinations of matrix biopolymers and fillers have been developed in the last decade. One of the most studied types of biopolymers is polylactic acid (PLA), a versatile biodegradable material derived from natural resources. PLA has great potential to replace traditional petroleum- based polymers, however, its brittleness and low thermal resistance still pose some limit from the applicative point of view. On the other hand, a glass-filled polymer is a mouldable composite material whose properties are enhanced by the addition of short glass fibres in a matrix of a polymer material. It is used to fabricate a wide range of structural components by injection or compression moulding. In this study, PLA composites with different contents and types of glasses: bioglass, phosphate-based glasses containing various modifiers (alkali oxides and transition metal oxide) and glass waste from Kelteks company, in a form of glass fiber (GF) and glass powder (PG), were prepared with the aim to tailor their thermal, structural, mechanical and electric properties. The results of our thorough characterization of these materials using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction, microscopy techniques, IR spectroscopy and impedance spectroscopy show that these novel PLA-GF and PLA-PG composites cover a wide range of physical properties.

polylactic acid ; glass fillers ; composites

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