Revealing the Long-term Ageing Effect on the Mechanical Properties of Chicken Feather Fibre/Poly(lactic acid) Biocomposites

Recently, bio-based polymer composites have been preferred instead of petroleum-based polymer composites due to increased sensitivity, awareness, and interest level in the fields of depletion of oil resources and environmental pollution. These eco-friendly materials, also called green composites, are reinforced with natural fibres and have superior properties such as biodegradability. In this paper, the effect of long-term ageing on mechanical properties of biocomposite material containing chicken feather fibre (CFF) as additive and poly(lactic acid) (PLA) as matrix is studied. The mechanical properties of pure PLA and CFF/PLA biocomposites, which are gradually increasing in mass concentrations of 2 %, 5 % and 10 %, have been investigated by tensile, compressive and hardness tests, and also the fracture surfaces were examined by SEM micrographs. The experimental results show that the long-term ageing effect causes the mechanical properties of pure PLA and CFF/PLA biocomposites to decrease. The lowest values of mechanical properties are found in the 5 % and 10 % CFF/PLA biocomposite materials that have the highest mass concentration of CFF.

Automated summary

This study investigates the mechanical properties of pure PLA and CFF/PLA biocomposites subjected to long-term ageing, showing a decrease in mechanical properties with an increase in mass concentrations of CFF. The results indicate that higher mass concentrations of CFF in the biocomposite materials result in lower mechanical properties due to the long-term ageing effect.