JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #118 - January/February 2018 - 53

Reinforcement

Tailored cylindrical warp-knitted fabric
for insulation and reinforcement

TECHNOLOGY

Biocomposites

Polypropylene/cotton stalk biocomposites
with enhanced characteristics

53
56

biocomposites TECHNOLOGY

Polypropylene/cotton stalk biocomposites
with enhanced characteristics
Dr. Abhishek sAchAn, Post Doc,
IRDL-UBS Lorient France
Pr. VeenA chouDhAry, Professor, CPSE
IIT Delhi
k.k. VimAl, research manager,
Dr. G.s. kAPur, general manager,
R&D Centre,
Indian Oil Corporation Ltd

Cotton stalk is a bio-waste of cotton cultivation that contains nearly 45% cellulose
and can be used as a reinforcement for thermoplastics. The influence of cotton
stalk concentration, chemical treatments and the presence of a compatibilizer
on the mechanical, rheological, and morphological properties of the resulting
composite materials is investigated in this paper.

n recent years, it has become common practice to incorporate natural fibres into polymer matrices as environmentally-friendly reinforcing agents [1, 3] . Using natural fibres
this way presents many other benefits over conventional synthetic-fibre-based composites. For example, natural fibres
cause fewer health risks during handling and manufacturing
[4] and natural composites require less energy for production
(and thus cause less pollution to the environment) [5] . To
successfully use natural fibres as reinforcements in polymer
matrices, it is vitally important to produce fibres with reproducible physical properties. It can be extremely challenging,
however, to obtain high-quality natural fibres (and thus effectively replace traditional reinforcement materials) because
the precise nature of the fibre varies from plant to plant and
depends on the cultivation conditions [6-8] . It was shown in
the literature that the substantial amount of bio-waste produced every year in agriculture has a very high lignocellulosic content [9, 10] and thus has the potential to be used in
polymeric composite materials [11] . For example, cotton stalk
(CS) is the residue that remains after the extraction of cotton
fibres. Although there is nearly five times as much CS as cotton fibres, there has been no major use for this material except as a fuel for cooking in villages. CS, like other natural fi-

bres, contains about 45% cellulose along with small amounts
of waxes, pectin and water-soluble compounds [12] . It tends
to degrade at a temperature above 220°C [13] , which makes
it a good reinforcement for thermoplastics such as polypropylene (PP) and can further enhance its low-density and mechanical properties [14-16] . Even though CS is hydrophobic,
which makes its adhesion with thermoplastics very difficult,
it has been shown that its hydrophobic nature can be reduced
via chemical treatments that improve its adhesion with a PP

Fig. 1: Full process chain for the preparation of cotton stalk/polypropylene (CS/PP)
biocomposites (top); scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of CS and the
resulting composite (bottom)

No118 January - February 2018

/ jec composites magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #118 - January/February 2018