10 Jan Physical and dynamic mechanical properties of continuous bamboo reinforcement/bio-based epoxy composites Back to Sci. Publications

ABSTRACT

Unidirectional bamboo reinforced cardanol-based epoxy composites were prepared by a close mould method. Two morphologies of reinforcements were used in this research: bamboo fibres and bamboo strips. The present article investigates the influence of bamboo reinforcements on the thermal and mechanical properties of the bio based matrix. Differential Scanning Calorimetry analyses showed that the introduction of bamboo does not modify the physical properties of the matrix. DMA analyses in shear mode showed an improvement of the shear conservative modulus that reaches 1.7 ± 0.1 GPa. This value that is independent from the morphology of reinforcements, indicates the existence of physical interactions. The continuity of matter between bamboo strips or bamboo fibres and the matrix observed by SEM confirms this result. Nevertheless, in tensile mode, the improvement of the tensile conservative modulus is specific to the used morphology. Indeed, for bamboo strips composites, it is 7.7 ± 0.8 GPa, while for bamboo fibres composites, it reaches 9.6 ± 0.8 GPa. This result is explained by the optimisation of stress transfer thanks to the specific morphology of bamboo fibres. A significant increase is also observed for the rubbery modulus due to entanglements specific of bamboo reinforcement.

This article was written as part of the BAMCO project. The BAMCO project is thus based on the design of bio-composites from bamboo fibres (Cobratex) and biobased resins, either thermoplastic (Polyamide, Arkema) or thermosets (Epoxy resins, SPECIFIC POLYMERS). Within the BAMCO project, we focus our research effort on the custom synthesis and formulation of biobased epoxy resins that are consistent with the targeted implementation processes and applicative specifications. Within the project, two approaches characterized by different technology readiness level (TRL) are targeted. We are benchmarking biobased epoxy resins already available on the market in order to identify the most interesting ones that can be used to formulate the built-to-specification biobased epoxy resins for targeted application.