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Mechanical Performance of Rotationally Molded Multilayer mLDPE/Banana-Fiber Composites

The incorporation of materials different from the polymer within the rotational molding process usually results in lowered mechanical properties, where impact strength is of particular concern. In order to overcome this issue, multilayer structures of virgin polyethylene (PE) and banana fiber compos...

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Autores principales: Kelly-Walley, Jake, Ortega, Zaida, McCourt, Mark, Millar, Bronagh, Suárez, Luis, Martin, Peter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10608177/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37895735
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma16206749
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author Kelly-Walley, Jake
Ortega, Zaida
McCourt, Mark
Millar, Bronagh
Suárez, Luis
Martin, Peter
author_facet Kelly-Walley, Jake
Ortega, Zaida
McCourt, Mark
Millar, Bronagh
Suárez, Luis
Martin, Peter
author_sort Kelly-Walley, Jake
collection PubMed
description The incorporation of materials different from the polymer within the rotational molding process usually results in lowered mechanical properties, where impact strength is of particular concern. In order to overcome this issue, multilayer structures of virgin polyethylene (PE) and banana fiber composites were prepared to determine the impact of the different layers on the performance of the final part. Cycle time has been studied to identify the influence of the addition of fibers in the process. The tensile, flexural and impact properties have been analyzed, finding improvements in Young’s modulus of up to 13%, although at the expense of significant decreases in impact strength. A reduction in the fiber size due to the pulverization process was observed, which affected the rheological and mechanical behavior of the composite. The beneficial effects of working in multiple layers have been demonstrated in this work, where composites with up to 5% of banana fiber have been produced in two-layer structures. Finally, the need to add neat polyethylene in the external layer is also highlighted as a way to counteract the reductions in mechanical properties, particularly for flexural elastic modulus and tensile strength, and this also helps with the drop in impact behavior to a lower extent.
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spelling pubmed-106081772023-10-28 Mechanical Performance of Rotationally Molded Multilayer mLDPE/Banana-Fiber Composites Kelly-Walley, Jake Ortega, Zaida McCourt, Mark Millar, Bronagh Suárez, Luis Martin, Peter Materials (Basel) Article The incorporation of materials different from the polymer within the rotational molding process usually results in lowered mechanical properties, where impact strength is of particular concern. In order to overcome this issue, multilayer structures of virgin polyethylene (PE) and banana fiber composites were prepared to determine the impact of the different layers on the performance of the final part. Cycle time has been studied to identify the influence of the addition of fibers in the process. The tensile, flexural and impact properties have been analyzed, finding improvements in Young’s modulus of up to 13%, although at the expense of significant decreases in impact strength. A reduction in the fiber size due to the pulverization process was observed, which affected the rheological and mechanical behavior of the composite. The beneficial effects of working in multiple layers have been demonstrated in this work, where composites with up to 5% of banana fiber have been produced in two-layer structures. Finally, the need to add neat polyethylene in the external layer is also highlighted as a way to counteract the reductions in mechanical properties, particularly for flexural elastic modulus and tensile strength, and this also helps with the drop in impact behavior to a lower extent. MDPI 2023-10-18 /pmc/articles/PMC10608177/ /pubmed/37895735 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma16206749 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kelly-Walley, Jake
Ortega, Zaida
McCourt, Mark
Millar, Bronagh
Suárez, Luis
Martin, Peter
Mechanical Performance of Rotationally Molded Multilayer mLDPE/Banana-Fiber Composites
title Mechanical Performance of Rotationally Molded Multilayer mLDPE/Banana-Fiber Composites
title_full Mechanical Performance of Rotationally Molded Multilayer mLDPE/Banana-Fiber Composites
title_fullStr Mechanical Performance of Rotationally Molded Multilayer mLDPE/Banana-Fiber Composites
title_full_unstemmed Mechanical Performance of Rotationally Molded Multilayer mLDPE/Banana-Fiber Composites
title_short Mechanical Performance of Rotationally Molded Multilayer mLDPE/Banana-Fiber Composites
title_sort mechanical performance of rotationally molded multilayer mldpe/banana-fiber composites
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10608177/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37895735
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma16206749
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