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A New Class of Injection Moulded Structural Biocomposites from PHBV Bioplastic and Carbon Fibre
Author(s) -
Reddy Jeevan Prasad,
Ahankari Sandeep,
Misra Manjusri,
Mohanty Amar
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.201200087
Subject(s) - materials science , bioplastic , composite material , ultimate tensile strength , heat deflection temperature , extrusion , flexural strength , scanning electron microscope , modulus , izod impact strength test , injection moulding , composite number , biocomposite , young's modulus , flexural modulus , ecology , biology
Biocomposites from carbon fibre (CF) and poly(hydroxybutyrate‐ co ‐hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) bioplastic were fabricated by extrusion followed by injection moulding. The effects of fibre length and fibre loading on the performance of PHBV/CF composites were investigated. The amount of CF (for both 150 µm and 6 mm length) was varied from 10 to 40 wt.‐%. The significant improvement in tensile strength (65%) and flexural strength (96%) was observed at 30 wt.‐% CF (6 mm length) loading. The heat deflection temperature (HDT) of the PHBV/CF composites increased by 32% compared to neat PHBV. The fibre–matrix interaction was analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The tensile modulus of the composites was evaluated theoretically by the rule of mixture and the Hirsch model.