A study of mechanical and morphological properties of PLA based biocomposites prepared with EJO vegetable oil based plasticiser and kenaf fibres

Abstract

A novel environmental friendly plasticized PLA kenaf biocomposites were fabricated by melt blending technique through a combination of epoxidized jatropha oil, one such non-edible vegetable oil material and renewable plasticizer. The mechanical and morphological properties of the composites were evaluated. The addition of EJO with 40 % kenaf fibre loading on PLA had improved the mechanical properties of the polymer composites. SEM micrographs clearly revealed the good physical interlocking for PLA and kenaf fibre at low loading levels (40 wt.%) while higher content (50 wt.%) of kenaf contributed to poor filler-matrix compatibility attributes that leads to filler-related failures which resulted voids. Alkalisation of kenaf fibre provides good interaction bonding between kenaf and PLA matrix which resulted on increased of value of mechanical properties of treated biocomposites compared with the untreated biocomposites.