Author(s)

T. Fujiura, K. Sakamoto, T. Tanaka & Y. Imaida

Abstract

Natural plant fibers have recently attracted attention as reinforcements for plastics due to their high specific mechanical properties and carbon neutrality. This study explored the preparation process for long jute fiber reinforced polylactic acid (LJF/PLA) pellets for injection molding and the mechanical performance of the molded composites. The originally fabricated pultrusion process for manufacturing long fiber reinforced thermoplastic (LFT) was capable of preparing LJF/PLA pellets, with the excellent impregnation of resin into jute fiber bundles. The incorporation of jute fibers of 50 mass% into PLA resulted in the improvement of flexural strength and modulus of injection molded composites. On the other hand, jute reinforcement was not effective for increasing the impact strength of the composite. Moreover, this study also investigated the influence of the moisture that had remained in jute fibers on the mechanical properties of the LJF/PLA composites. As the moisture content of jute fiber increased, the average molecular weight of matrix PLA in the LJF/PLA lowered due to the hydrolysis, and consequently the mechanical properties of the composites decreased. Eliminating moisture from jute fibers in the preparation process of LJF/PLA pellets was found to be important for preventing the deterioration in the molecular weight of PLA and the properties of the molded composites. Keywords: polylactic acid (PLA), natural plant fibers, jute, long-fiber reinforced thermoplastic (LFT), moisture content, molecular weight, mechanical properties.

Keywords

polylactic acid (PLA), natural plant fibers, jute, long-fiber reinforced thermoplastic (LFT), moisture content, molecular weight, mechanical properties.