Characterization of Rice Straw Fiber Filled Polylactic Acid Composites

Abstract

The natural fibre strengthened composite materials; they are playing a larger role in engineering and technology. When compared to the bulk of businesses' use of metals, natural fibres serve as preferable materials due to their  light weight, low cost and resistance to corrosion in the current unsustainable environmental situation. The primary goal of this research is to examine the mechanical characteristics and fracture toughness behaviour ofPLA composites filled with rice straw fibres. The composite specimen was created using injection moulding and both untreated and treated rice straw fibres in various weight fractions. According to ASTM standards, testing for mechanical,thermal Properties (such as tensile, flexural, XRD, and TGA) and fracture toughness were conducted. According to the findings, treated and untreated fiber-reinforced composites exhibit greater values for fracture toughness when compared to pure polylactic acid composites. The fibre reinforcement increases the composite's fabrication's ability to withstand fracture. For untreated fibre reinforced composites, the values for fracture toughness increased as the amount of fibre content did. The fracture toughness ratings for treated fibre reinforced composites declined as the fibre content increased. In comparison to pure PLA samples, untreated fibre samples with up to 20% weight of rice straw fibre shown good mechanical properties. However, they failed to display good impact and hardness qualities. Treated fibre samples with 10 wt% of fibre showed good tensile and flexural capabilities. The fibres didn't hold up to the load for chemically treated samples, hence they displayed poor mechanical qualities in comparison to samples of untreated fibre. Following chemical treatment, the fibres grew brittle and were unable to sustenance the load.