Bruno Henrique dos Santos, Karen de Souza do Prado, Asaph Armando Jacinto, Márcia Aparecida da Silva Spinacé*
Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.2, pp. 176-182, 2018, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2018.634101
Abstract Although thermoplastic starch (TPS) is biodegradable, its low mechanical resistance limits its wide application. Sugarcane bagasse (SB) fibers can be used as reinforcement in TPS matrix composites, but the influence of fiber size on the properties of the composite is still unknown. In this study, TPS composites reinforced with SB short fibers of four sizes were processed and characterized in order to analyze the influence of fiber size on the mechanical properties of the TPS/SB composite. It was observed that the interaction between fiber and matrix was good and optimized when the fibers are sifted More >