Edner Oloo

Date of Award

August 2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Surojit Gupta

Abstract

The development of bioplastic composites holds significant importance in addressing theescalating environmental concerns associated with conventional plastic materials, also referred to as traditional plastics. Traditional plastics are derived from fossil fuels. The utilization of fossil fuels to produce these plastic materials, and at the alarming rate they are currently being produced, contributes to several issues such as climate change, resource depletion, and plastic wastes accumulation. Therefore, development of bioplastic composites has emerged as a promising solution along with recycling. Bioplastics composites offer a sustainable alternative by utilizing degradable and renewable resources such as bioplastics (plant-based polymers) or agricultural biomass wastes. Furthermore, bio-composites seek to combat the poor mechanical properties of single bioplastics and their high production cost in comparison to conventional plastics, thus expanding their areas of application. This current work explores the design of novel bioplastic composites using solvent casting method. It utilizes the concept of polymer blending to fabricate blend of different single bioplastics including polylactic acid (PLA) and Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). Different agricultural additives including sunflower hull (SFH), corn stem (CS), dried distiller grains with solubles (DDGS), seaweed (SW), Kraft lignin, and acetone lignin (AL) are also utilized as reinforcements. The results demonstrate that addition of the agricultural additives in PHA matrix cause deterioration in tensile strength of pure PHA. However, reinforcement of PHA matrix by PLA and the additives results in enhancement of both ductility and strength. Regarding the thermal properties, the blending components showed no significant effects on the matrices.

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