Mechanical and thermal properties of waste silk fiber-reinforced poly(butylene succinate) biocomposites

This article reports the mechanical and thermal properties of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) biocomposites reinforced with industrially available waste silk fibers, fabricated with varying fiber contents and lengths. The result indicates that use of waste silk fibers may be a potential as reinforcement for effectively improving the static and dynamic mechanical properties of a biodegradable polymer matrix resin, depending on the waste silk fiber content and length in the present biocomposite system. The "as-separated" waste silk/PBS biocomposites showed the maximum tensile and flexural properties at a fiber loading of 40 wt %, and the "chopped" waste silk/PBS biocomposites showed the optimal strength and modulus with waste silk fibers of 12.7 ram length. The chopped waste silk fibers play a more contributing role in improving the mechanical properties of waste silk/PBS biocomposites than the as-separated waste silk fibers at a fixed fiber loading. Above the glass transition temperature, the storage modulus of waste silk/PBS biocomposites was significantly greater than that of PBS resin, especially in the higher temperature region. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.