Abstract
Laminates were produced with epoxy resins from waste vegetable oil (WVO) intended for the manufacturing of environmentally-friendly alternatives for the composites industry. Post-use cooking oil appears a promising source of triglycerides for polymer manufacturing. Matrices cured with methylhexahydrophthalic anhydride (MHHPA) were reinforced with glass and flax fibres, creating a library of composites that were compared to analogues from virgin oil and benchmarked against commercial diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA). Glass fibre-reinforced composites presented Young’s moduli similar to the benchmark but reduced tensile strength. Chemical pre-treatment of the flax fibre (NaOH and stearic acid) countered the limited tensile performance observed for materials with untreated flax; improvements were evidenced by DMA and SEM. Moreover, WVO-based resins greatly improved impact properties and reduced density with no effect on thermal stability. Therefore, WVO-based composites appear as more sustainable alternatives in applications demanding toughness, stiffness and lightweight over strength.
Highlights
Natural fibre-reinforced composites (NFRC) have gained attention in industry and academia in recent decades as an environmentally-friendly alternatives for traditional composites produced with glass fibres (GFRC) [1]
waste vegetable oil (WVO) presents a number of impurities and by-products deriving from hydrolysis and thermal oxidation during the frying process, the development of purification methodologies based on liquid–liquid (L–L) extraction was capable of producing a clean source of triglycerides [43]
Resins produced from virgin oil followed the same procedure, only with adjustments in the quantities of the reagents to reflect the different degree of unsaturation; ENVO contained 2.66 oxirane rings per unit
Summary
Natural fibre-reinforced composites (NFRC) have gained attention in industry and academia in recent decades as an environmentally-friendly alternatives for traditional composites produced with glass fibres (GFRC) [1]. Vegetable fibres have been rediscovered as reinforcing agents and extensively investigated in applications with thermoplastic and thermoset matrices [2] They present advantages over traditional fibres such as reduced density, price, renewability, biodegradability, and lower environmental burdens [3]. Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA), a molecule predominantly used in the epoxy resin market, uses bisphenol A (BPA) as a precursor [11]. This molecule is a recognised teratogenic agent, endocrine disruptor, presents long lasting effects to aquatic life, and has been removed from polymers used in baby bottles [12,13,14]. Bisphenol-based networks such as those formed with DGEBA can release BPA even after curing since these cross-linked units are susceptible to hydrolysis [11]
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