The incorporation of untreated and alkali-treated banana fiber in SEBS composites

Derval Dos Santos Rosa,Cristiane Reis Martins,Alexandre Oka Thomaz Cordeiro,Letícia Cuebas,José Armando Bertolini Neto,Renata Tâmara Pereira De Barros

doi:10.1590/0104-1428.07520

Derval Dos Santos Rosa, Cristiane Reis Martins + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-1428.07520

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Abstract

Abstract In this work, banana fiber was used as reinforcement for the preparation of a thermoplastic elastomer composite (TPE). Few studies are exploring the natural fiber incorporation on TPEs, with no one using banana fiber. The fiber was extracted from banana pseudostem and modified with an alkaline solution. The untreated and treated banana fibers were incorporated in 2%, 5%, and 10% in SEBS. The mixture was performed in a thermokinetic mixer (K-Mixer) and plates prepared by compression molding. The composites were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM), tensile testing, mechanical dynamical analysis (DMA). It can be observed that the samples with untreated fibers presented a higher tensile strength, except for the incorporation of 5% of BF. Young's modulus increase as the fiber's incorporation grows, indicating greater rigidity of the composite. It was found that the chemically treated banana fiber composites, e.g., TPE/TBF5 and TPE/TBF10, shows a 15.4% and 22.2% higher elongation.

Highlights

Natural fibers are growing increase importance as reinforcing materials in composites due to some advantages, such as low density, inexpensive, no toxicity, biodegradable in nature, good mechanical properties, and provide a market reputation as an eco-friendly material[1]
It was found that the chemically treated banana fiber composites, e.g., thermoplastic elastomer (TPE)/TBF5 and TPE/TBF10, shows a 15.4% and 22.2% higher elongation
These results showed similarities with chemical compositions previously reported for banana fibers, as reported by Gonçalves et al.[31] that found 9.0% and 3.0% of lignin for untreated and treated banana fibers, as well as 25.1% and 16.1% of hemicellulose for untreated and treated fiber, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Natural fibers are growing increase importance as reinforcing materials in composites due to some advantages, such as low density, inexpensive, no toxicity, biodegradable in nature, good mechanical properties, and provide a market reputation as an eco-friendly material[1]. Their work shows the higher rice straw concentration leads to an increase in thermal stability and higher thermal decomposition temperature. This improvement is believed that the physical structure of rice straw can act as an obstacle for the volatile products resulted from the thermal decomposition of the polymer. The addition of the fiber increased the stiffness of the composites, as evidenced by the increase in the maximum torque value in compared to pure ethylene-octene rubber. They appointed the type of fiber, fiber dispersion, porosity, and interfacial strength as the main factors affecting mechanical performance

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