Abstract
In the present study, waste jute fibers formed in textile industries were wet pulverized to nanoscale using high energy planetary ball milling. The rate of refinement of uncleaned jute fibers having noncellulosic contents was found slower than the cleaned jute fibers. This behavior is attributed to the strong holding of fiber bundles by noncellulosic contents which offered resistance to the defibrillation during wet milling. In addition, the pulverization of fibers in the presence of water prevents the increase in temperature of mill which subsequently avoided the sticking of material on the milling container. After three hours milling, the diameter of nanofibers was observed around 50 nm. In the further stage, obtained nanofibers were incorporated under 1 wt%, 5 wt%, and 10 wt% loading into polylactic acid composite films. The potentials of jute nanofibers were investigated for improvement in mechanical and barrier properties of films. The maximum improvement in mechanical properties was observed in case of 5 wt% composite film where Young’s modulus was increased to 3.3 GPa from 1.0 GPa as compared with neat PLA film.
Highlights
The demand for textiles has increased significantly in the last decade due to the rise in the living standards of people
The diameter of nanofibers reached 50 nm after 3 hours of wet milling. This technique has a very good scope on industrial scale for the refinement of large amount of waste fibers generated in the textile industry
When jute nanofibers were incorporated into Polylactic acid (PLA) matrix for preparation of biodegradable nanocomposite films, the maximum improvements in mechanical properties were observed at 5 wt% loading of nanofibers
Summary
The demand for textiles has increased significantly in the last decade due to the rise in the living standards of people. Recent increased competition and reduced profit margins of such industries have forced the researchers to find alternative more profitable applications of textile wastes. One such interesting way is to separate the nanofibrils or nanocrystals from the textile wastes and subsequently incorporate them into high performance functional products. Cellulose nanofibers have been used in value added applications such as reinforced biodegradable nanocomposites, foams, aerogels, optically transparent functional materials, and oxygen-barrier layers [6–8]. In the subsequent stage, cleaned waste jute fibers were subjected to wet pulverization in high energy planetary ball milling process to separate jute nanofibers. The present paper deals with the wet pulverization of waste jute fibers to nanoscale using high energy planetary ball milling process. The biodegradable nanocomposite films can be expected to serve in food packaging films, agriculture mulch cover, and so forth
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