Open Access

ARTICLE

Enhancing the Performance of Polylactic Acid (PLA) Reinforcing with Sawdust, Rice Husk, and Bagasse Particles

A. MADHAN KUMAR¹, K. JAYAKUMAR^2,*, M. SHALINI³

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha Engineering College (Autonomous), Saveetha Nagar, Thandalam, Chennai-602105, India.
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, OMR, Kalavakkam, Chennai - 603110, India.
3 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, St. Joseph’s College of Engineering, OMR, Chennai -600119, India.

* Corresponding Author: e-mail:

Journal of Polymer Materials 2022, 39(3-4), 269-281. https://doi.org/10.32381/JPM.2022.39.3-4.7

Abstract

Polylactic acid (PLA) is the most popular thermoplastic biopolymer providing a stiffness and strength alternative to fossil-based plastics. It is also the most promising biodegradable polymer on the market right now, thus gaining a substitute for conservative artificial polymers. Therefore, the current research focuses on synthesizing and mechanical characterization of particlereinforced PLA composites. The hot compression molding technique was used to fabricate PLA-based composites with 0, 2.5, 5, and 7.5 weight % of sawdust, rice husk, and bagasse particle reinforcements to enhance the performance of the PLA. The pellets of PLA matrix were taken with an average size of 3 mm and particle reinforcements of an average size of 50 m were used as the raw materials. After processing the PLA composites, microstructural and mechanical characterization studies were carried out to check the uniform distribution of the reinforced particles on the PLA matrix and the improvement in their strength, respectively. The results found hardness varied from 29.7 to 36.1 Shore D, tensile strength from 46.2 to 62.5 MPa, impact strength from 14.5 to 17.4 kJ/m² and flexural strength from 78.9 to 93 MPa from all processed composites. In addition, SEM images were taken to perform a microstructural evaluation of the PMCs.
Also, from characterization studies, it was found that the PLA with 5 wt.% reinforcements showed better properties than 2.5 and 7.5% reinforcements. On the other hand, particle clustering was observed on the composites with a reinforcement of 7.5%, and hence it showed lesser performance. Moreover, PLA with 5% rice husk particle reinforcement showed superior performances compared with other reinforcements.

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Keywords

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