Abstract
This work was designed to determine the mechanical properties and static cushioning performance of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/bagasse fibre foam composites with a multiple-factor experiment. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis and static cushioning tests were performed on the foamed composites and the results were compared with those of commonly used expanded polystyrene (EPS). The results were as follows: the materials had a mainly open cell structure, and bagasse fibre had good compatibility with PVA foam. With increasing PVA content, the mechanical properties of the system improved. The mechanical properties and static cushioning properties of the foam composite almost approached those of EPS. In addition, a small amount of sodium tetraborate obviously regulated the foaming ratio of foamed composites. With increasing sodium tetraborate content, the mechanical properties of foamed composites were enhanced. The yield strength and Young’s modulus of the material prepared by reducing the water content to 80.19 wt% were too high and not suitable for cushioned packaging of light and fragile products.
Highlights
Packaging is an indispensable part of commodity circulation
The foaming materials often used in the cushion packaging area can be divided into four categories: organic foam material, plant fiber foam material [2,3], metal foam material [4,5,6,7] and ceramic foam material [8,9]
Organic foam material is a closed cell foam made of organic materials with emulsifiers, foaming agents, curing agents and other auxiliaries such as expanded polystyrene (EPS), polyethylene foam (EPE), etc
Summary
Packaging is an indispensable part of commodity circulation. In the logistics and transportation processes, is external packaging needed, but internal packaging is needed to pack objects or fill gaps [1]. All of these buffer packaging materials have some limitations Due to their environmental friendliness, low cost, and unlimited market potential, the development of plant fibre cushioning materials has attracted increasing interest. Polyvinyl alcohol is a polyhydroxy polymer produced by the hydrolysis of polyvinyl acetate, and it exhibits good mechanical properties [30,31] It is nontoxic, biocompatible, water soluble, semicrystalline, and fully biodegradable, and it has a relatively lower cost than the currently dominant foam precursor, polyurethane [32]. The advantage of composite materials is that the components can complement each other [33] and produce synergies that avoid the high-density defects of plant fibre foaming material while providing good mechanical performance. Deionized water was prepared with filtering equipment in our laboratory
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