| 초록 |
Recently, needs for developing environmentally friendly composite materials have been increasing with emphasis of environmental importance and regulation, social concerns, and biotechnology. Biocomposites or natural fiber composites are defined as materials composed of biodegradable natural fibers or biofibers as reinforcement and biodegradable or non-biodegradable polymers as matrix. Plant-based natural fibers like flax, jute, and sisal have been more frequently utilized and reported so far. However, use of animal-based natural fibers like silk and wool has been rarely reported. Silk fibers (Bombyx mori) spun out from silkworm cocoon are consisted of fibroin in the inner layer and sericin in th outer layer, all protein-based. They are biodegradable, of well-aligned structure with high crystallinity, higher tensile strength than glass fiber and synthetic organic fibers, and good elasticity and resilience. Meanwhile, our research team has fabricated and characterized some fundamental properties of novel silk fiber-based biocomposites. In the present study, biocomposites were fabricated with short silk fibers of different lengths and biodegradable poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) using a film stacking/compression molding method. Their thermal and mechanical properties were investigated in terms of flexural and tensile properties, thermal stability, thermomechanical behavior, and dynamic mechanical properties. The fiber lengths used are 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and 1 inch. The fiber contents of each composite are approximately 40% by weight.
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