Study on the Pre-Treatment, Physical and Chemical Properties of Ramie Fibers Reinforced Poly (Lactic Acid) (PLA) Biocomposite

The comparative advantage of using vegetable fibers as reinforcement (fillers) attracted manufacturing industries over conventional composites. Natural fibers are purely green features that can easily decompose in a normal way to water and CO2 when encountered with moisture during their disposal. In this research, the effect of pre-treatment and properties of ramie fibers reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) composite were studied. Before the composite preparation, ramie fibers were soaked in a solution of alkali (sodium hydroxide) and silane coupling agent to provide better compatibility between ramie fibers and PLA interface. Additionally, a design containing nine samples was conducted to study the effect of temperature, fiber volume ratio, molding pressure and time on composite fabrication. From the results, optimum processing parameters were identified based on the tensile, bending and impact strengths improvement from various tested samples. Furthermore, this study highlights the degradation process and properties of ramie fibers reinforced PLA composites by underground burial experimental procedures.