The mechanical and fire safety properties of bamboo fiber reinforced polylactide biocomposites fabricated by injection molding

Abstract

Bamboo fiber was considered a good candidate for the reinforcement of green composites. The applications of bamboo fibers as reinforcements in fabric or structural forms to constitute composites have been widely investigated. This study conducted the process from the bamboo strips to the fibers that were compounded with the polylactide to form the composite pellets for the following injection molding process. Alkali treatment of bamboo fiber at 100℃ for 12 h could properly delignify the bamboo fiber strips, resulting in required bamboo fibers. After compounded with polylactide in a banbury mixer to form composite pellets, the injection molding process was used to make composites with improved mechanical properties, including the tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, and impact strength. The reinforced effect of the bamboo fiber on polylactide was quite apparent in our experiments. A simple rule of mixture was used to approximate the tensile strength and modulus of the bamboo fiber/polylactide composite. The fire safety improvement of the biocomposite was also investigated by adding fire retardant.