Preparation and properties of short natural fiber reinforced
poly(lactic acid) composites
poly(lactic acid) composites
(1. School of Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mechanics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China;
2. Institute of Nano and Bio-Polymeric Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering,
Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China)
2. Institute of Nano and Bio-Polymeric Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering,
Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China)
Abstract: The natural fiber/poly(lactic acid) (PLA) composites were prepared with ramie and jute short fiber as reinforcement and PLA as matrix. The mechanical and thermal properties of the composites were investigated. The results show that the properties of the composites are better than those of plain PLA. When the content of the fiber is 30%, the composites can get the best mechanical properties. The dynamic mechanical analysis results show that the storage moduli of the PLA/ramie and PLA/jute composites increase with respect to the plain PLA. The Vicat softening temperature of the composites is greatly higher than that of PLA. The results of thermogravimetric analysis show that adding fiber to the PLA matrix can improve the degradation temperature of PLA.
Key words: poly(lactic acid); ramie; jute; composite