Mechanical, thermal, and morphological behavior of pineapple leaf fibre and polylactic acid green composites fabricated by varying fiber loading, fiber length, and injection parameters

In this article, gray relational analysis (GRA) was carried out to study the influence of fiber length, fiber loading, and injection parameters on the mechanical, thermal, and morphological properties of the developed green composites. The green composite was developed by chemically modifying the pineapple leaf fiber (PLF). PLF was chemically treated with 1% Na2CO3 for a period of 6 h. The chemically modified PLF was chopped at a fiber length (L) of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 mm. The fiber loading (D) was also varied to 10, 20, and 30 wt% to study the effect of both fiber length and loading on the tensile and flexural properties of the PLF/PLA green composite developed through injection molding. GRA was employed to determine the optimal fiber length and fiber loading for achieving better tensile and flexural properties of PLF/PLA green composite. The injection parameters considered for producing the PLF/PLA green composite were (a) injection pressure (70, 90, and 110 bars), (b) injection speed (40, 50, and 60 mm/s), and (c) melting temperature (165, 175, and 185?). The mechanical (tensile, flexural, compression, and shear) and thermal (TGA: thermogravimetric analysis and DTG: derivative thermogravimetric analysis) behavior of the developed PLF/PLA green composite was studied and analyzed. The morphology of the fractured specimens was also inspected using field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM).