Hybrid Bio-composites Reinforced with Natural Wood Saw Dust and Eco-friendly Graphite: Evaluation of Physical, Mechanical, and Thermal Properties 


Vol. 26,  No. 2, pp. 833-854, Feb.  2025
10.1007/s12221-025-00848-w


PDF
  Abstract

Natural filler-reinforced PLA composites are a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based polymers in industries such as automotive, consumer products, packaging, aerospace, sports, and electronics. However, they have poor performance in humid environments due to the hydrophilic nature of fillers. Graphite is an effective reinforcement to improve the strength and hydrophobic nature of composites. Therefore, this study explores the effects of reinforcing graphite (5–20%) on the properties of PLA composites reinforced with waste sawdust (10–30%). The mechanical, thermal, and water absorption properties of injection mold samples are evaluated following ASTM standards. The mechanical and thermal properties of graphite-reinforced composites outperformed those of neat PLA and sawdust-reinforced composites (SDC) due to their higher rigidity, thermal conductivity, and nucleation effect on the composites. HC2 (10% graphite) achieves peak tensile and flexural strengths of 54 and 145 MPa, surpassing PLA by 237.5 and 241.2%, and SDC by 10.6 and 25%, respectively. Furthermore, peak compressive strength and hardness of 82.33 MPa and 84 are obtained for HC2. However, excessive graphite reduces the impact strength of HCs due to stress concentration and brittleness. The crystallization and thermal stability are also improved due to the nucleation effect of SD and graphite in the HCs. Moreover, the water absorption of HCs is lower than that of SDC by 9.2–32.7%, indicating the effectiveness of hydrophobic graphite reinforcement. The measured results reveal that the addition of graphite as secondary reinforcement in HCs enhances the mechanical and thermal properties of the composites while reducing water absorption.

  Statistics
Cumulative Counts from November, 2022
Multiple requests among the same browser session are counted as one view. If you mouse over a chart, the values of data points will be shown.


  Cite this article

[IEEE Style]

E. Vengadesan, T. Arunkumar, S. Muralidharan, K. Debnath, H. Dutta, K. Kadirgama, "Hybrid Bio-composites Reinforced with Natural Wood Saw Dust and Eco-friendly Graphite: Evaluation of Physical, Mechanical, and Thermal Properties," Fibers and Polymers, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 833-854, 2025. DOI: 10.1007/s12221-025-00848-w.

[ACM Style]

Elumalai Vengadesan, T. Arunkumar, S. Muralidharan, K. Debnath, Hrishikesh Dutta, and Kumaran Kadirgama. 2025. Hybrid Bio-composites Reinforced with Natural Wood Saw Dust and Eco-friendly Graphite: Evaluation of Physical, Mechanical, and Thermal Properties. Fibers and Polymers, 26, 2, (2025), 833-854. DOI: 10.1007/s12221-025-00848-w.

Search
(IN TITLE, AUTHOR, ABSTRACT,KEYWORDS)

Advanced Search ▼

POPULAR KEYWORDS
(TOP 10 KEYWORDS)

Recent Publications
(LAST 3 YEARS)

pISSN : 1229 - 9197
eISSN : 1875 - 0052

Impact Factor(2022): 2.5