New Polylactic Acid Composites Reinforced with Artichoke Fibers
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale, Aerospaziale, dei Materiali, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Edificio 6, Palermo 90128, Italy
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
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These authors contributed equally to this work.
Academic Editor: Macro Morreale
Materials 2015, 8(11), 7770-7779; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8115422
Received: 28 September 2015
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Revised: 5 November 2015
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Accepted: 10 November 2015
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Published: 16 November 2015
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Composites)
In this work, artichoke fibers were used for the first time to prepare poly(lactic acid) (PLA)-based biocomposites. In particular, two PLA/artichoke composites with the same fiber loading (10% w/w) were prepared by the film-stacking method: the first one (UNID) reinforced with unidirectional long artichoke fibers, the second one (RANDOM) reinforced by randomly-oriented long artichoke fibers. Both composites were mechanically characterized in tensile mode by quasi-static and dynamic mechanical tests. The morphology of the fracture surfaces was analyzed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Moreover, a theoretical model, i.e., Hill’s method, was used to fit the experimental Young’s modulus of the biocomposites. The quasi-static tensile tests revealed that the modulus of UNID composites is significantly higher than that of the neat PLA (i.e., ~40%). Moreover, the tensile strength is slightly higher than that of the neat matrix. The other way around, the stiffness of RANDOM composites is not significantly improved, and the tensile strength decreases in comparison to the neat PLA.
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Keywords:
PLA; artichoke fiber; biocomposites; film stacking; quasi-static tensile tests; dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA); scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
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MDPI and ACS Style
Botta, L.; Fiore, V.; Scalici, T.; Valenza, A.; , R.S. New Polylactic Acid Composites Reinforced with Artichoke Fibers. Materials 2015, 8, 7770-7779. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8115422
AMA Style
Botta L, Fiore V, Scalici T, Valenza A, RS. New Polylactic Acid Composites Reinforced with Artichoke Fibers. Materials. 2015; 8(11):7770-7779. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8115422
Chicago/Turabian StyleBotta, Luigi, Vincenzo Fiore, Tommaso Scalici, Antonino Valenza, and Roberto S. . 2015. "New Polylactic Acid Composites Reinforced with Artichoke Fibers" Materials 8, no. 11: 7770-7779. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma8115422
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