Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
9th Polymer Science and Technology Congress (PolymerTR), Ankara, Türkiye, 16 - 18 Eylül 2024, ss.162
Due to environmental issues, demands for biodegradable and environmentally friendly materials are
rising in all sectors. Thus, there is also a search for biodegradable composites to replace traditional
composites. For this purpose, natural fiber products based on flax have been created, especially for
automotive interiors. Although technical textiles made from flax fiber can be used with conventional
thermoset resins or thermoplastics, new studies concentrate on biodegradable polymers like polylactide
(PLA) to meet environmental needs with fully green materials. However, PLA is highly brittle, so its
composites deal with brittleness. Also, it is a non-polar polymer with a hydrophobic nature, leading to
difficulties in forming interfacial bonding with fiber, causing lower strength in its composite. To
improve these mechanical problems, multilayer flax woven fabrics were treated with polyethylene
glycol (PEG), a hydrophilic polymer with high polarity. Two PEGs with a molecular weight of 1500
and 6000 were used at various concentrations through solution in water. Flax fabrics were dipped into
the PEG solutions, and hot compressed within semi-crystalline PLA films after drying. Tensile, bending
and impact tests were performed to evaluate mechanical properties. It was deduced that strain and
toughness values significantly improved by incorporating PEG onto flax fabrics.