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A growing concern of climate change and waste pollution is causing a shift in products towards green materials. The automotive industry is exploring environmentally friendly alternatives to glass fibers (GF). This research focuses on understanding interactions between constituents of biocomposites made up of basalt fiber (BF) and hemp hurd particle fiber (HF) reinforced polypropylene (PP), and statistically comparing the mechanical properties. The addition of a coupling agent has significantly improved the performance and fiber-matrix interactions in the biocomposite blends. The elastic modulus of some BF/HF/PP mixtures were comparable to the GF/PP composite; however, the GF still outperformed in strength. Rotational and capillary rheometer analysis determined the viscosities of all formulations displaying that basalt composites were consistently lower in viscosity than the glass fiber composite, indicating easier processing conditions. 

Responsible disposal of vehicles at the end of life is a pressing environmental concern. In particular, waste plastic forms the largest proportion of non-recycled waste material from light-duty vehicles, and often ends up in a landfill. Here we report the upcycling of depolluted, dismantled and shredded end-of-life waste plastic into flash graphene using flash Joule heating. The synthetic process requires no separation or sorting of plastics and uses no solvents or water. We demonstrate the practical value of the graphene as a re-inforcing agent in automotive polyurethane foam composite, where its introduction leads to improved tensile strength and low frequency noise absorption properties. We demonstrate process continuity by upcycling the resulting foam composite back into equal-quality flash graphene. A prospective cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment suggests that our method may afford lower cumulative energy demand and water use, and a decrease in global warming potential compared to traditional graphene synthesis methods.

 

Lignin, while economically and environmentally beneficial, has had limited success in use in reinforcing carbon fibers due to harmful chemicals used in biomass pretreatment along with the limited physical interactions between lignin and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) during the spinning process. The focus of this study is to use lignin obtained from chemical-free oxidative biomass pretreatment (WEx) for blending with PAN at melt spinning conditions to produce carbon fiber precursors. In this study, the dynamic rheology of blending PAN with biorefinery lignin obtained from the WEx process is investigated with the addition of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride as a plasticizer to address the current barriers of developing PAN/lignin carbon fiber precursors in the melt-spinning process. Lignin was esterified using butyric anhydride to reduce its hydrophilicity and to enhance its interactions with PAN. The studies indicate that butyration of the lignin (BL) increased non-Newtonian behavior and decreased thermo-reversibility of blends. The slope of the Han plot was found to be around 1.47 for PAN at 150 °C and decreased with increasing lignin concentrations as well as temperature. However, these blends were found to have higher elasticity and solution yield stress (47.6 Pa at 20%wt BL and 190 °C) when compared to pure PAN (5.8 Pa at 190 °C). The results from this study are significant for understanding lignin–PAN interactions during melt spinning for lower-cost carbon fibers. 

Thermoplastic resins (linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP)) reinforced by different content ratios of raw agave fibers were prepared and characterized in terms of their mechanical, thermal, and chemical properties as well as their morphology. The morphological properties of agave fibers and films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and the variations in chemical interactions between the filler and matrix materials were studied using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. No significant chemical interaction between the filler and matrix was observed. Melting point and crystallinity of the composites were evaluated for the effect of agave fiber on thermal properties of the composites, and modulus and yield strength parameters were inspected for mechanical analysis. While addition of natural fillers did not affect the overall thermal properties of the composite materials, elastic modulus and yielding stress exhibited direct correlation to the filler content and increased as the fiber content was increased. The highest elastic moduli were achieved with 20 wt % agave fiber for all the three composites. The values were increased by 319.3%, 69.2%, and 57.2%, for LLDPE, HDPE, and PP, respectively. The optimum yield stresses were achieved with 20 wt % fiber for LLDPE increasing by 84.2% and with 30 wt % for both HDPE and PP, increasing by 52% and 12.3% respectively.