Poly(butylene succinate) biocomposite modified by amino functionalized ramie fiber fabric towards exceptional mechanical performance and biodegradability

This work reports a poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) biocomposite modified by amino functionalized ramie fiber fabric (RFF) via a facile thermal-compressive method. Different from other methods, we introduced PBS nonwoven as matrix raw material, whose three-dimensional network structure can effectively anchor RFF, resulting in excellent infiltration. Results show that the mechanical performance, wettability, crystallization behavior, thermal performance, rheological behavior as well as biodegradability of PBS biocomposite are competitive with the introduction of amino functionalized RFF. Compared with RFF/PBS biocomposites fabricated in other researches, there is a significant promotion in mechanical performance. For RFF/PBS-50 wt% biocomposite, the tensile strength, elongation at break, flexural strength, flexural modulus, interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and impact strength reach to 72.4 MPa, 19.4%, 100.5 MPa, 4.9 GPa, 3.3 MPa and 67.5 KJ/m2, respectively. They are mainly ascribed to observed excellent interfacial bonding, typical plastic deformation of PBS and riveting effect of RFFs. Furthermore, the RFF/PBS biocomposite shows favorable biodegradability in the compost test. The biodegradable function of RFF/PBS biocomposite enables it to become a desirable substitute of conventional nondegradable composite.