Rheological and Dynamic Mechanical Characteristics of Abutilon Natural Straw and Polylactic Acid Biocomposites: A Detailed Study

In recent years, the requirement for environmentally friendly materials has increased to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and prevent global environmental concerns. Recently, natural fibers have become attractive materials to engineers, scientists, and researchers as an alternative reinforcement for biocomposites. In this study, polylactic acid/abutilon natural straw biocomposites with various abutilon straw weight fractions were prepared by melt blending. The differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) results showed a significant influence of the abutilon straw on the melting behavior of PLA, even at low abutilon straw contents. The dynamic mechanical analysis demonstrated that the storage modulus, as well as the tan delta of the biocomposites, increased when the abutilon straw content increased, which indicates better interaction between abutilon natural straw and PLA. The incorporation of abutilon straw into biocomposites provided favorable changes in rheology related to the matrix. SEM observation revealed good dispersion of the abutilon straw in PLA. The direct relation between straw content and tan delta also proved the better interaction between abutilon natural straw and PLA. However, the rheological properties decreased with the abutilon straw addition, the most significant effect seen again with the further increasing straw content. This study might be further extended to see the effect of temperature on the rheological properties.