Abstract
Polylactic acid (PLA) is a thermoplastic polymer produced from lactic acid that has been chiefly utilized in biodegradable material and as a composite matrix material. PLA is a prominent biomaterial that is widely used to replace traditional petrochemical-based polymers in various applications owing environmental concerns. Green composites have gained greater attention as ecological consciousness has grown since they have the potential to be more appealing than conventional petroleum-based composites, which are toxic and nonbiodegradable. PLA-based composites with natural fiber have been extensively utilized in a variety of applications, from packaging to medicine, due to their biodegradable, recyclable, high mechanical strength, low toxicity, good barrier properties, friendly processing, and excellent characteristics. A summary of natural fibers, green composites, and PLA, along with their respective properties, classification, functionality, and different processing methods, are discussed to discover the natural fiber-reinforced PLA composite material development for a wide range of applications. This work also emphasizes the research and properties of PLA-based green composites, PLA blend composites, and PLA hybrid composites over the past few years. PLA’s potential as a strong material in engineering applications areas is addressed. This review also covers issues, challenges, opportunities, and perspectives in developing and characterizing PLA-based green composites.
Highlights
Despite the fact that fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) have been used in a wide range of engineering applications, especially where high strength and stiffness are needed, conventional FRP composites often pose significant challenges in terms of reuse or recycling at the end of their useful lives, owing to the nonbiodegradable fibers and matrixes
The addition of Natural fibers reinforced with a petroleum-based nonbiodegradable polymer matrix produce partially biodegradable composite, and natural fibers reinforced with biodegradable resin matrix produce green or fully biodegradable composite
Despite having tensile strength and elastic modulus that are comparable to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) [82], Polylactic acid (PLA) has less than 10% elongation at break, making it a very brittle material [85]
Summary
Despite the fact that fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) have been used in a wide range of engineering applications, especially where high strength and stiffness are needed, conventional FRP composites often pose significant challenges in terms of reuse or recycling at the end of their useful lives, owing to the nonbiodegradable fibers and matrixes. Green composites made of natural fibers and biodegradable polymers have been created. In the 1980s, researchers began developing partially biodegradable composites made of cellulosic fibers and thermoset resin. It was documented in the 1990s that thermoplastic resin was used to fabricate wood flour (WF)-reinforced composites. At present, using different natural fibers (e.g., flax, ramie, hemp, etc.) and biodegradable polymers (e.g., starch, cellulose, or vegetable oil derivatives), a number of partially biodegradable and green composites with reasonably good mechanical properties have been created [5]. Further feasibility research into the possible use of natural fibers as reinforcing compounding materials for use in many applications is generating many economic and environmental impacts [7,13,14,15,16,17,18,19]. The current study examines recent research and developments in PLA-based green composites and their mechanical properties in terms of tensile strength, compressive strength, flexural properties, and impact strength, as well as some of the fundamental issues in the construction of such composites
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