Natural fiber reinforced biomass-derived poly(ester-urethane–acrylate) composites for sustainable engineering applications

The development of sustainable fiber-reinforced polymers (FRP) to substitute non-renewable plastics from fossil fuels with more abundant biomass-based materials remains a big challenge. Bioresource-based FRP composites produced using 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) as a green platform chemical and natural fibers as reinforcement are of growing interest in solving the issues of global sustainability. This paper aims at the development of natural fiber reinforced FDCA-derived poly(ester-urethane–acrylate) (PEUA) oligomer as a matrix resin for composite fabrication using flax, jute, ramie, and cotton reinforcements. Water uptake, mechanical and thermal properties of the obtained composites have been investigated. The cotton reinforced PEUA displayed higher tensile (61.6 MPa) and flexural (75.2 MPa) strengths and smaller moisture diffusion coefficient when compared to the other composites. The mechanical properties of the untreated FRP composites were not significantly improved after the permanganate and alkaline chemical treatments due to their higher fiber-matrix interaction as compared with modified ones. The overall results confirmed the suitability of the natural fiber-reinforced FDCA-derived PEUA composites to be employed as lightweight materials for different applications including the automotive engineering.