TY - JOUR
T1 - Controlled retting of hemp fibres: Effect of hydrothermal pre-treatmen tand enzymatic retting on the mechanical properties of unidirectiona lhemp/epoxy composites
AU - Liu, Ming
AU - Silva, Diogo Alexandre Santos
AU - Fernando, Dinesh
AU - Meyer, Anne S.
AU - Madsen, Bo
AU - Daniel, Geoffrey
AU - Thygesen, Anders
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The objective of this work was to investigate the use of hydrothermal pre-treatment and enzymatic retting to remove non-cellulosic compounds and thus improve the mechanical properties of hemp fibre/epoxy composites. Hydrothermal pre-treatment at 100 kPa and 121 °C combined with enzymatic retting produced fibres with the highest ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 780 MPa. Compared to untreated fibres, this combined treatment exhibited a positive effect on the mechanical properties of hemp fibre/epoxy composites, resulting in high quality composites with low porosity factor (αpf) of 0.08.Traditional field retting produced composites with the poorest mechanical properties and the highest αpf of 0.16. Hydrothermal pretreatment at 100 kPa and subsequent enzymatic retting resulted in hempfibre composites with the highest UTS of 325 MPa, and stiffness of 38 GPa with 50% fibre volume content,which was 31% and 41% higher, respectively, compared to field retted fibres.
AB - The objective of this work was to investigate the use of hydrothermal pre-treatment and enzymatic retting to remove non-cellulosic compounds and thus improve the mechanical properties of hemp fibre/epoxy composites. Hydrothermal pre-treatment at 100 kPa and 121 °C combined with enzymatic retting produced fibres with the highest ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 780 MPa. Compared to untreated fibres, this combined treatment exhibited a positive effect on the mechanical properties of hemp fibre/epoxy composites, resulting in high quality composites with low porosity factor (αpf) of 0.08.Traditional field retting produced composites with the poorest mechanical properties and the highest αpf of 0.16. Hydrothermal pretreatment at 100 kPa and subsequent enzymatic retting resulted in hempfibre composites with the highest UTS of 325 MPa, and stiffness of 38 GPa with 50% fibre volume content,which was 31% and 41% higher, respectively, compared to field retted fibres.
KW - A. Natural fibres
KW - A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)
KW - B. Mechanical properties
KW - B. Porosity
U2 - 10.1016/j.compositesa.2016.06.003
DO - 10.1016/j.compositesa.2016.06.003
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1359-835X
VL - 88
SP - 253
EP - 262
JO - Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
JF - Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
ER -