Thesis
ENTIRELY BIOBASED COMPOSITES TO REPLACE SINGLE-USE PLASTICS
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
07/2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000007047
Abstract
In response to the pressing environmental crisis posed by single-use plastics, this thesis explores a sustainable alternative through the integration of lignin and cellulose nanofibers (CNF), renewable biopolymers, with polylactic acid (PLA) to develop a sustainable and stronger biocomposites. This research addresses the effect of the lignin and CNF content on the mechanical, thermal, and crystallinity properties, and PLA-lignin-CNF interfacial adhesion were investigated by tensile and flexural tests, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The addition of siloxane cross-linkers were also investigated, with the tensile strength of the PLA-lignin-CNF-TEOS (20 wt% lignin and 10 wt% CNF) composites are approximately 24% higher than those of pure PLA. The glass transition temperature (T_g) decreases from 62.9 for pure PLA to 58.1 °C for the PLA-lignin-CNF-TEOS composite, and the composites have higher thermal stability than pure PLA. The effect of the compatibility/adhesion of the PLA with the lignin and CNF was confirmed by the FT-IR and DSC results. This thesis provides valuable insight into the potential of lignin and CNF as sustainable fillers for PLA composites, to contribute to the larger goal of developing an environmentally friendly biocomposite material capable of replacing single-use plastics.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- ENTIRELY BIOBASED COMPOSITES TO REPLACE SINGLE-USE PLASTICS
- Creators
- Samantha N. Grade
- Contributors
- Che-Hao Yang (Co-Chair)Changki Mo (Co-Chair)Xiao Zhang (Committee Member)Joseph Iannelli (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (TRIC)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 66
- Identifiers
- 99901152639701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis