from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
The increasing environmental awareness, depletion of non-renewable petroleum resource and growing demand on sustainable product development, plant fibres are actually assigned to more technical applications through the development of polymer/ natural fibre composites. Indeed, owing to their important advantages, such as low density, renewability and biodegradability, plant organic fibres represent a viable alternative to inorganic fillers or synthetic fibres in composite materials. Spartium junceum L. is a small shrub that belongs to the leguminosae family and grows in all countries around the Mediterranean Sea. In this work the effect of Spartium junceum L. (SJL) fibers content on the thermal properties of polypropylene/Spartium junceum L. (SJL) fibers (PP/SJL), polycarbonate/Spartium junceum L. (SJL) fibers (PC/SJL) and thermoplastic polyurethane/Spartium junceum L. (SJL) fibers (TPU/SJL) composites were studied. Composites were prepared by reinforcing thermoplastic polymers (PP,PC and TPU) with randomly oriented, short Spartium junceum L. fibres in Brabender mixer and hidraulic press.The neat PP, TPU and PC as well as their composites were characterized by DSC and TGA techniques. The results confirm that the Spartium junceum L fibres can be used as reinforcement to produce composites with properties suitable for automotive applications.
Keywords: Thermoplastic polymers, Spartium junceum L. (SJL), composites, thermal analysis© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.