Abaca fibres

Since the early 2000s, plant-derived biobased fibrous fillers have been frequently used for the reinforcement of PLA-based materials. A well known and frequently used plant-derived fibrous filler is kenaf. Like the case of pollen as an additive, the wettability between PLLA and kenaf should be improved by the addition of a compatibilizer. Other fibrous materials are cellulose fibrous materials or fibres [383,384], cellulose whiskers [385], recycled cellulose fibre [386], cotton fibre [387], sugar beet pulp [388], flax [389], bamboo fibre [390], kenaf [391-393], papyrus [394], hemp fibre [395], cuphea and lesquerella [396], ramie [397], rice straw fibre [398], red algae fibre [399], miscanthus fibre [400], abaca fibre [401], milkweed [402], wood fibre [403] and recycled newspaper fibre [404], Poly(L-lactic acid) fibre can also be used to reinforce soft plastics such as PCL [405],... 

Bledzki, A.K., Jaszkiewicz, A., and Scherzer, D. (2009) Mechanical properties of PLA composites with man-made cellulose and abaca fibres. Composites Part A, 40 (4), 404-412. 

Bledzki AK, Mamun AA, Jaszkiewicz A, Erdmann K et al (2010) Polypropylene composites with enzyme modified abaca fibre. Compos Sci Technol 70 854—860... 

AAPP treatment. The critical surface tension of abaca fibres reduced with increasing treatment time. However, hemp and sisal fibres showed otherwise. With increasing AAPP treatment time, the critical surface tension increased. The authors hypothesised that longer treatment times of hemp and sisal fibres led to the cross-linking of the fibre surfaces (hemp fibres) and decomposition of hydrophobic groups. This might have led to the observed increase in the critical surface tension. 

Abaca is a versatile plant with several uses. Because its fibres are particularly resistant to saltwater, abaca has been commonly used for fishing nets. Abaca fibre is used mainly in the production of tea bags and meat casings it is also a substitute for bark, which was once a primary source of cloth. In addition, it is considered an excellent raw material in the processing of security and high quality paper, diapers, napkins, machinery filters, hospital textiles (aprons, caps, gloves), and electrical conduction cables, as well as some 200 other different finished products. 

Abaca is considered the strongest of natural fibres, being three times stronger than sisal fibre, and is far more resistant to saltwater decomposition than most of the vegetable fibres. Compared to synthetic fibres like rayon and nylon, abaca fibre possesses higher tensile strength and lower elongation in both wet and dry states. 

Major players include Ahlstrom and Purico, Devon Valley. These wetlaid nonwovens are made with abaca fibres. Typical basis weight range from 12/14 to 28 gsm (grams per square metre). 

A. K. Bledzki, O. Faruk, and A. A. Mamun, Influence of compounding processes and fibre length on the mechanical properties of abaca fibre-polypropylene composites. Polimery 53, 120 (2008). 

Propylene composites with enzyme modified abaca fibre. Compos. 

A commercial paper-like sheet of kenaf fibre was converted to a composite material by impregnation with a solution of a commercial L-PLA in dioxane solution (Nishino et al, 2002). Following this procedure, a composite material with 70% v/v fibre content was obtained. Tensile tests showed that a maximum tensile stress of about 60 MPa was found for the best composite material, comparing with a value of about 20 MPa for the unreinforced polymer processed in the same way. Similarly, a tensile modulus of about 6 GPa for the kenaf-PLA composite compared with a value of just over 1 GPa for the unreinforced polymer. The authors concluded that good stress transfer fi om the resin to the matrix had been obtained. In research by Shibata et al (2003), a flexural modulus of 5.5 GPa was achieved at 20% w/w abaca fibre content in a PLA composite. This result compares with a flexural modulus of 3.5 GPa for the unreinforced pol3mier. A further increase in flexural modulus was obtained when... 

Composites from natural fibres have not yet been fully established in high-tech industry because a sufficient quality for engineering applications is not adequately offered (e.g. by Natural Fiber Composites Inc. and North Wood Plastics). Fibres are available from many plants (highlighted of high quality) for example, wood, abaca, coir, cotton, flax, hemp, henequen, istle, jute, kenaf, ramie, sisal or sunn. 

Fig. 4.5 Principal centres of fibre production 1 flax, 2 hemp, 3 sunn, 4 ramie, 5 jute, 6 kenaf, 7 roseUe, 8 sisal, 9 abaca, 10 nettle, 11 coir, 12 cantala, 13 henequen, 14 kapok, 15 urena,...

Leaf or hard fibres These fibres are most commonly used as reinforcing agents in polymers. They can be extracted for instance from sisal, henequen, abaca or pineapple. 

Abaca Flax Hemp Sisal AAPP treated Lignocellulosic Fibres... 

M. Ramesh, K. Palanikumar, and K.H. Reddy, Comparative evaluation on properties of hybrid glass fiber-sisal/jute reinforced epoxy composites. Procedia Eng. 51, 745-750 (2013). B.V. Ramnath, S.J. Kokan, R.N. Raja, R. Sathyanarayanan, C. Elanchezhian, A.R. Prasad, and V.M Maickavasagam, Evaluation of mechanical properties of abaca-jute-glass fibre reinforced epoxy composite. Mater. Des. 51,357-366 (2013). 

Agung EH, Sapuan SM, Hamdan MM, Zaman HMDK, Mustofa U. Study on abaca (Musa textilis Nee) fibre reinforced high impact polystyrene (HIPS) composites by tliermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Int J Phys Sci 2011 6 2100-2106. 

Nature in its abundance offers us a lot of material that can be called fibrous fibres are found in plant leaves, fraits, seed covers and stalk. Fibres from these plants can be considered to be totally renewable and biodegradable. Bast fibres are soft, woody fibres obtained from stems of dicotyledonous plants (flowering plants with net-veined leaves). Such fibres, usually characterized by fineness and flexibility, are also known as soft fibres, distinguishing them from the coarser, less flexible fibres of the leaf, or hard , fibre group. This chapter will discuss bast fibres from flax, hemp, jute, ramie, kenaf and abaca. 

Bast fibres (flax, hemp, jute, ramie, kenaf, abaca) 37... 

---