Influence of Giant Reed (Arundo Donax L.) Culms Processing Procedure on Physicochemical, Rheological, and Thermomechanical Properties of Polyethylene Composites

ABSTRACT

Giant reed (Arundo donax L.) is a plant species with a high growth rate and low requirements, which makes it particularly interesting for the production of different bioproducts, including natural fibers. This work assesses the use of fibers obtained from reed culms as reinforcement for a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) matrix. Two different lignocellulosic materials were used: i) shredded culms and ii) fibers obtained by culms processing, which have not been reported yet in literature as fillers for thermoplastic materials. A good stress transfer for the fibrous composites was observed, with significant increases in mechanical properties; composites with 20% fiber provided a tensile elastic modulus of almost 1900 MPa (78% increase versus neat HDPE) and a flexural one of 1500 MPa (100% increase), with an improvement of 15% in impact strength. On the other hand, composites with 20% shredded biomass increased by 50% the tensile elastic modulus (reaching 1560 MPa) and the flexural one (up to 1500 MPa), without significant changes in impact strength. The type of filler is more than its ratio; composites containing fibers resulted in a higher performance than the ones with shredded materials due to the higher aspect ratio of fibers.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

摘要

巨型芦苇（Arundo donax L.）是一种生长速率高、要求低的植物，这使得它对生产包括天然纤维在内的不同生物产品特别感兴趣. 这项工作评估了从芦苇秆中获得的纤维作为高密度聚乙烯（HDPE）基体的增强材料的用途. 使用了两种不同的木质纤维素材料: i）切碎的秆和ii）通过秆加工获得的纤维，这些纤维在文献中尚未被报道为热塑性材料的填料. 观察到纤维复合材料具有良好的应力传递，机械性能显著提高; 含20%纤维的复合材料的拉伸弹性模量几乎为1900MPa（与纯HDPE相比增加了78%），弯曲弹性模量为1500MPa（增加了100%），冲击强度提高了15%. 另一方面，具有20%切碎生物质的复合材料的拉伸弹性模量（达到1560MPa）和弯曲弹性模量（高达1500MPa）增加了50%，而冲击强度没有显著变化. 填料的种类多于其配比; 含有纤维的复合材料由于纤维的高纵横比而比含有切碎材料的复合材料具有更高的性能.

KEYWORDS:

• Arundo donax
• giant reed
• biomass
• fibers
• composites
• HDPE
• characterization
• injection molding

关键词:

• Arundo donax
• 巨大的芦苇
• 生物量
• 纤维
• 复合材料
• HDPE
• 刻画
• 注射成型

Acknowledgments

Luis Suárez: Ph.D. grant program co-financed by the Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society of the Canary Islands Regional Council for Employment, Industry, Commerce and Knowledge (ACIISI) and by the European Social Fund (ESF) (Grant number TESIS2021010008).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Zaida Ortega; Methodology: Zaida Ortega, Luis Suárez, Mateusz Barczewski, Paul R. Hanna; Formal analysis: Luis Suárez, Paul R. Hanna, Zaida Ortega, Mateusz Barczewski, Paulina Kosmela, Bronagh Millar, Eoin Cunningham; Investigation: Luis Suárez, Paul R. Hanna, Zaida Ortega, Mateusz Barczewski, Paulina Kosmela, Bronagh Millar, Eoin Cunningham; Supervision: Zaida Ortega; Visualization: Luis Suárez, Mateusz Barczewski; Writing – original draft: Luis Suárez, Zaida Ortega, Mateusz Barczweski; Writing – review & editing: all authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15440478.2023.2296909

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información [TESIS2021010008]; Spanish Ministry of Universities [Next Generation funds (Order UNI/501/2021)].