Estudo de compósitos de polietileno reciclado reforçado com fibra de bambu

Abstract

Petroleum-derived materials are used to produce most of society's consumer goods. However, the large environmental impacts produced by them have increased the search for alternatives less harmful materials. The possibility of developing these materials without much polluting the environment, at a lower cost, which has equal or superior characteristics, is what sustainable development demands. An alternative is recycling because due to the huge amount of these derivatives circulating, its reuse is paramount to reduce its production. Another alternative is to add natural fibers with good properties in polymer matrix composites to increase the quality of the material and to reduce the number of polymers. The polyethylene blend analyzed has in your composition the low-density polyethylene that is used in bags and in disposable containers, which after use turns trash causing pollution. The plant fiber in the study will be the bamboo fiber, which is abundant in the Brazilian Northeast and in the tropical climate regions. A study to analyze the properties of a composite composed of recycled polyethylene and bamboo fiber is the motivation of this research. Some chemical treatments - mercerization and acetylation - were performed on the fiber to improve fiber/matrix adhesion. Scanning electron microscope images verified the modifications. The FTIR referring to the bands in 1750cm−¹,1636cm−¹ and 1250cm−¹ showed the disappearance and reappearance of the carbonyl vibrational group (C = O) after mercerization and acetylation respectively. All the composites had elasticity improvement and some fiber distribution along them showed a gain of up to 168.43% at the maximum breakdown voltage