ADDING VALUE TO NATURAL FIBRES IN THE FIELD OF MATERIAL SCIENCE

ANALÍA VÁZQUEZ; JUAN MORÁN; GASTÓN FRANCUCHI; ARIEL STOCCHI; EXEQUIEL S. RODRIGUEZ

Salvador, Bahia, Brasil

Congreso; International Congress on natural fibres 2009; 2009

Secretaria de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação do Estado da Bahia

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0pt; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; mso-hyphenate:none; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:AR-SA;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 85.05pt 70.85pt 85.05pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> In this work, three strategies for increasing the added value of natural fibres are studied. The first study is related to the use of natural fibres for manufacturing car parts. We characterised several natural fibre mats and fabrics in terms of their processability for producing composite materials. The permeability of the reinforcement, which is a key parameter in infusion processing techniques, was measured and compare with the obtained for glass mats. Also, a novel treatment for coating the fibres with a biodegradable polymer (Polyhydroxybutyrate, PHB) was employed and the effect on the permeability was analyzed.  The second part of the work is related to the use of natural fibres for manufacturing structural sandwich panels.   Sandwich panels are widely used in many structures, especially in the aeronautic and transportation industry due to several properties like high specific strength and stiffness, acoustic isolating capacity and low thermal conductivity. Typical core materials for sandwich construction are foams, aluminium honeycomb, Nomex, polymer and composites. In this work novel honeycomb materials made from natural resources are investigated, focusing in the use of jute fibres as reinforcement. An experimental laboratory-scale compression moulding process to obtain honeycomb cores was used.  Flatwise compression test results confirm good specific characteristics of the cores compared with synthetic commercial ones found on the literature. Finally, the obtaining of nanocellulose fibre from sisal was researched. This product have potential applications on nanocellulose film paper and paper board, food application, medical and pharmaceutical applications, cosmetic crèmes, dry strength agent, surface strength agent, nanocoating, nanobarriers. In this work a study on the feasibility of extracting cellulose from sisal fibre, by means of two different procedures was carried out. The extraction procedures that were used led to purified cellulose. Advantages and disadvantages of both procedures were also analyzed.  After that, nano-cellulose was produced by the acid hydrolysis of obtained nanocellulose and characterized by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).