The incorporation of untreated and alkali-treated banana fiber in SEBS composites

• Autor(a) principal: Cuebas,Letícia
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Bertolini Neto,José Armando, Barros,Renata Tâmara Pereira de, Cordeiro,Alexandre Oka Thomaz, Rosa,Derval dos Santos, Martins,Cristiane Reis
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Polímeros (São Carlos. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-14282020000400405
• topic: banana fiber; composite; SEBS; thermoplastic elastomer; thermokinetic-mixer

Abstract In this work, banana fiber was used as reinforcement for the preparation of a thermoplastic elastomer composite (TPE). Few studies are exploring the natural fiber incorporation on TPEs, with no one using banana fiber. The fiber was extracted from banana pseudostem and modified with an alkaline solution. The untreated and treated banana fibers were incorporated in 2%, 5%, and 10% in SEBS. The mixture was performed in a thermokinetic mixer (K-Mixer) and plates prepared by compression molding. The composites were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM), tensile testing, mechanical dynamical analysis (DMA). It can be observed that the samples with untreated fibers presented a higher tensile strength, except for the incorporation of 5% of BF. Young's modulus increase as the fiber's incorporation grows, indicating greater rigidity of the composite. It was found that the chemically treated banana fiber composites, e.g., TPE/TBF5 and TPE/TBF10, shows a 15.4% and 22.2% higher elongation.