Search

Pineapple materials sourced from agricultural waste have been employed to process novel bio-degradable rigid composite foams. The matrix for the foam consisted of starch extracted from pineapple stem, known for its high amylose content, while the filler comprised non-fibrous cellulosic materials sourced from pineapple leaf. In contrast to traditional methods that involve preparing a batter, this study adopted a unique approach where the starch gel containing glycerol were first formed using a household microwave oven, followed by blending the filler into the gel using a two-roll mill. The resulting mixture was then foamed at 160 °C using a compression molding machine. The foams displayed densities ranging from 0.43–0.51 g/cm3 and exhibited a highly amorphous structure. Notably, the foams demonstrated an equilibrium moisture content of approximately 8–10% and the ability to absorb 150–200% of their own weight without disintegration. Flexural strengths ranged from 1.5–4.5 MPa, varying with the filler and glycerol contents. Biodegradability tests using a soil burial method revealed complete disintegration of the foam into particles measuring 1 mm or smaller within 15 days. Moreover, to showcase practical applications, an environmentally friendly single-use foam tray was fabricated. This novel method, involving gel formation followed by filler blending, sets it apart from previous works. The findings highlight the potential of pineapple waste materials for producing sustainable bio-degradable foams with desirable properties and contribute to the field of sustainable materials.

Raspberry ketone (RK) has high commercial value in the food and healthcare industries. A biological route to this flavour compound is an attractive prospect, considering the need to meet consumer demands and sustainable goals; however, it is yet to become an industrial reality. In this work, fungal production of raspberry ketone (RK) and raspberry compounds (RC) via submerged fermentation of Nidula niveo-tomentosa was characterized in flask, stirred-tank reactor (STR), panel bioreactor (PBR), and fluidized bed reactor (FBR) configurations. The results indicate that the panel bioreactor resulted in larger, floccose pellets accompanied by maximum titres of 20.6 mg/L RK and 50.9 mg/L RC. The stirred-tank bioreactor with impeller mixing yielded compact elliptical pellets, induced the highest volumetric productivity of 2.0 mg L−1 day−1, and showed RK selectivity of 0.45. While differing mixing strategies had clear effects on pellet morphology, RK production presented a more direct positive relationship with cultivation conditions, and showed appropriate mixing and aeration favour RK to raspberry alcohol (RA). Overall, this paper highlights the importance of bioreactor design to fungal fermentation, and gives insight into green and industrial bioproduction of value-added natural compounds.

This study explores the implications of plastic waste and recycling management on recyclates for manufacturing clean-energy harvesting devices. The focus is on a comparative analysis of using recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) production, in two densely populated Asian countries of large economies, namely Singapore and India. Of the total 930,000 tonnes of plastic waste generated in Singapore in 2019, only 4% were recycled and the rest were incinerated. In comparison, India yielded 8.6 million tonnes of plastic waste and 70% were recycled. Both countries have strict recycling goals and have instituted different waste and recycling management regulations. The findings show that the waste policies and legislations, responsibilities and heterogeneity in collection systems and infrastructure of the respective country are the pivotal attributes to successful recycling. Challenges to recycle plastic include segregation, adulterants and macromolecular structure degradation which could influence the recyclate properties and pose challenges for manufacturing products. A model was developed to evaluate the economic value and mechanical potential of PET recyclate. The model predicted a 30% loss of material performance and a 65% loss of economic value after the first recycling cycle. The economic value depreciates to zero with decreasing mechanical performance of plastic after multiple recycling cycles. For understanding how TENG technology could be incorporated into the circular economy, a model has estimated about 20 million and 7300 billion pieces of aerogel mats can be manufactured from the PET bottles disposed in Singapore and India, respectively which were sufficient to produce small-scale TENG devices for all peoples in both countries.

Natural fiber-reinforced composites can contribute to reducing carbon footprint goals due to their ability to reduce overall product weight, bio-diverse feedstocks, and recyclability potential. In this work, natural fiber-based composites containing the reinforcement of coconut husk and bagasse fiber with calcium carbonate (CaCO3) ingredients were prepared and analyzed. The composites were analyzed for mechanical, thermomechanical, and morphological properties. The reinforcements were chemically functionalized using 5% w/v NaOH to enhance their interactions with the epoxy resins. The chemical functionalization created perforation on the fiber surface, improving the interlocking of fibres with the resin material and strengthening the mechanical performance of the composite. The composites developed using modified reinforcement treatment resulted in increased tensile strength (64.8%) and flexural strength (70%). The reinforcement treatment influenced the hydrophilicity, and the water absorption of treated composites was reduced more than five times compared to the unmodified composites. Scanning electron microscopy revealed morphological changes due to fiber modification, the underlaying mechanism of fiber contraction, and enhanced fiber matrix interface interlocking and adhesion strengthening. Thermal analysis confirmed that alkali treatment improves the crystallinity of the fiber and thereto the degradation temperature of treated fiber composites (both bagasse and coconut husk), which is 375.27 °C, the highest amongst the developed hybrid composites.

In this work, the effect of cellulose nanofiber (CNF) on the mechanical properties of long pineapple leaf fiber (PALF)-reinforced epoxy composites was investigated. The content of PALF was fixed at 20 wt.% and the CNF content was varied at 1, 3, and 5 wt.% of the epoxy matrix. The composites were prepared by hand lay-up method. Comparison was conducted between CNF-, PALF- and CNF–PALF-reinforced composites. It was found that the introduction of these small amounts of CNF into epoxy resin caused very small effects on flexural modulus and strength of neat epoxy. However, impact strength of epoxy with 1 wt.% CNF increased to about 115% that of neat epoxy, and, as the content of CNF increased to 3 and 5 wt.%, the impact strength decreased to that of neat epoxy. Observation of the fractured surface under electron microscope revealed the change in failure mechanism from a smooth surface to a much rougher surface. For epoxy containing 20 wt.% PALF, both flexural modulus and strength increased significantly to about 300% and 240% that of neat epoxy. The composite impact strength increased to about 700% that of the neat epoxy. For hybrid systems containing both CNF and PALF, there were few changes observed in both flexural modulus and strength compared to the PALF epoxy system. However, much improvement in impact strength was obtained. By using epoxy containing 1 wt.% CNF as the matrix, the impact strength increased to about 220% that of 20 wt.% PALF epoxy or 1520% that of neat epoxy. It thus could be deduced that the spectacular improvement in impact strength was due to the synergistic effect of CNF and PALF. The failure mechanism leading to the improvement in impact strength will be discussed.

The aim of this study was to assess whether the mechanical properties of mitral valve chordae tendineae are sensitive to being cross-linked under load. A total 64 chordae were extracted from eight porcine hearts. Two chordae (posterior basal) from each heart were subjected to uniaxial ramp testing and six chordae (two strut, two anterior basal and two posterior basal) were subjected to dynamic mechanical analysis over frequencies between 0.5 and 10 Hz. Chordae were either cross-linked in tension or cross-linked in the absence of loading. Chordae cross-linked under load transitioned from high to low extension at a lower strain than cross-linked unloaded chordae (0.07 cf. 0.22), with greater pre-transitional (30.8 MPa cf. 5.78 MPa) and post-transitional (139 MPa cf. 74.1 MPa) moduli. The mean storage modulus of anterior strut chordae ranged from 48 to 54 MPa for cross-linked unloaded chordae, as compared to 53–61 MPa cross-linked loaded chordae. The mean loss modulus of anterior strut chordae ranged from 2.3 to 2.9 MPa for cross-linked unloaded chordae, as compared to 3.8–4.8 MPa cross-linked loaded chordae. The elastic and viscoelastic properties of chordae following glutaraldehyde cross-linking are dependent on the inclusion/exclusion of loading during the cross-linking process; with loading increasing the magnitude of the material properties measured.

Scale-dependent stress intensity factors in an anti-plane cracked orthotropic material layer are evaluated using strain gradient theory. Both volumetric and surface strain gradient material characteristic lengths represented as l and $$l^{'}$$ , respectively, are employed to obtain semi-analytical solutions. The surface strain gradient effect is considered for both positive and negative $$l^{'}$$ values. The layer edges are assumed stress-free and oriented parallel to the crack plane. The presence of orthotropy can either increase or decrease the stress intensity factors depending on if it is greater or smaller than unity. The volumetric strain gradient effect reduces the stress intensity factor and it is more pronounced for smaller layer thickness. It was found that the negative surface gradient leads to a more complaint crack, while the positive surface gradient increases crack stiffness. Overall, the surface gradient effect is less significant in comparison with the volumetric gradient effect.

Growing environmental concerns have made more people aware of waste utilization and management. Agro-waste is becoming to be one of the main contributors to the environmental issue. From a circular...

Currently, a lot of attention is focused on composite laminates made from continuous carbon fibre reinforced plastics. On the other hand, there is also renewed interest in using carbon fibre fragments for producing new reinforced plastic laminates partly because of advancement in technology for recovering the fibres (in fragmented forms) from the recycling of used plastic laminates. Additionally, short fibres also find applications in repair. For instance, damaged areas in reinforced-plastic laminates are replaced by a similar plastic reinforced by fibres, known as stepped/patch or scarf, specially tailored to the size of the damage site. What is the performance of short fibres derived from recycling? How do the size-tailored fibres enhance the mechanical integrity of the repaired laminates? Here, we take a fresh look at the basic concepts of short fibre reinforced plastics to make sense of these practical issues.

Plastic, a material obtained from nonrenewable resources such as petroleum products, has so many advantages. Specifically, the main application of plastic is found in food packaging. But every entity has its advantages and disadvantages. Apart from the advantages, plastic has so many disadvantages that should not be neglected. The main problem of plastic is its disposal, as it would result in pollution in terms of landfills, incineration, etc. But, it is also true that we cannot neglect its advantages, which are seen in every field/sectors such as medical, automobile, packaging, etc. So, the scientist has developed biodegradable plastic which completely replaces it with the same advantages and applications. One of the main applications of bioplastic is made from polylactic acid (PLA). This study describes the development of plastic films by utilizing PLA and halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), which ultimately removes the pollution problem with an increase in the plastic films’ mechanical properties. So, the main aim of this study is to determine the characteristics of the novel plastic film that is developed using PLA and HNTs.

Background: Carbon fibre reinforced epoxy (CFRP) is susceptible to impact damage which could resulted in reduction of the mechanical properties. This paper studies the architecture of barely visible impact damage (BVID) to comprehend the extent of damage on quasi-isotropic CFRP laminates of varying thickness (i.e. 16, 24 and 32-ply laminates of 3, 4 and 5 mm respectively). Methods: Quasi-static indentation is chosen to produce BVID on CFRP laminates, followed by using non-destruction evaluation method, namely conventional contact-type ultrasonic testing (UT) and C-mode scanning acoustic microscopy (C-SAM) method. Results: The findings revealed (1) the size and shapes of the BVID on CFRP laminates, (2) no damage found at the point of damage, and (3) the bridging between the point of impact to the outer damaged diameter due to the consequence of diverse orientation of carbon fibre strips which exhibit excellent mechanical properties before structural failure. Conclusions: The results concluded that the UT and C-SAM method can identify both the pristine region and the internal damaged structures in CFRP laminates.

This paper is an extended paper from the 24th International Conference on Mechatronics Technology, ICMT 2021. The basic mechanical characteristic that gauges the stiffness of a solid material is known as the Young’s modulus. To evaluate the Young’s modulus, destructive material testing is frequently used. This paper describes how to determine a material’s dynamic Young’s modulus using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) in conjunction with numerical back-analysis. Three different materials (brass, aluminum, and steel) were examined for their static and dynamic reactions. A static transverse displacement was first applied at the free end of the beam before it was released and the beam was allowed to vibrate freely. The resulting vibrations at the free end were monitored using the DIC method, following which the natural frequencies of the beam were derived by applying the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to the DIC measured time history. The Young’s modulus corresponding to the fundamental natural frequency of the beam was then obtained via modal back-analysis using the finite element program Ansys 2022 R1. In this way, the Young’s modulus of the material may be calculated using a combination of numerical and DIC techniques, thus allowing for the non-contact evaluation of the structural integrity without subjecting the material to destructive testing. Potential applications of this method include bridge and building assessments, and structural health monitoring (SHM).

We described a technique of a post-process stage to partially remove the poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) binder in Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) dental scaffolds. The scaffolds were exposed to ultrasonic waves while immersed in an ethanol/acetone solvent mixture that possessed both polar and nonpolar properties. A factorial experiment was conducted in which the scaffolds were treated to three levels of sonication power (pW): 0, 20% (22 W) and 40% (44 W), and soaking duration (t): 5, 15, and 30 min. The treated scaffolds were characterized by FT-IR, optical microscopy, and mechanical (compressive) testing. FT-IR revealed that the amount of PVA decreased with increasing pW and t. Two-way ANOVA revealed that increasing pW and t, respectively, resulted in increasing scaffold surface area to volume (SVR). Sonication and solvent caused structural damage (i.e., unevenness) on the scaffold surface, but the damage was minimal at 20% pW and 30 min. The optimal values of pW and t resulting in enhanced fracture strength, strain and toughness were 20% and 30 min, respectively, which corroborated the findings of minimal structural damage. However, sonication had no significant effects on the scaffold stiffness. Mechanistic analysis of the effects of sonication predicted that the ultrasonic energy absorbed by the scaffold was sufficient to disrupt the van Der Waals bonds between the PVA and PLGA but not high enough to disrupt the covalent bonds within the PLGA. This technique is promising as it can partially remove the PVA from the scaffold, and mitigate problematic issues down the line, such as thermal degradation during sterilization, and undue delay/variability in biodegradation.

Environmental pollution, such as air, water, and soil pollution, has become the most serious issue. Soil pollution is a major concern as it generally affects the lands and makes them non-fertile. The main cause of soil pollution is agro-waste. It may be possible to mitigate the agro-waste pollution by re-utilizing this agro-waste, namely natural fibres (NFs), by blending into polymer-based material to reinforce the polymer composite. However, there are pros and cons to this approach. Consequently, the polymer composite materials fabricated using NFs are inferior to those polymer composites that are reinforced by, e.g., carbon or glass fibres from the mechanical properties’ perspectives. The limitations of utilizing natural fibres in polymer matrix are their high moisture absorption, resulting in high swelling rate and degradation, inferior resistance to fire and chemical, and inferior mechanical properties. In particular, the NF polymer composites exhibit inferior interfacial adhesion between the fibre and the matrix, which, if improved, ultimately overcome all the listed limitations and improve the mechanical properties of the developed composites. To improve the interfacial adhesion leading to the enhancement of the mechanical properties, optimum chemical treatment such as Alkalization/Mercerization of the fibres have been explored. This article discusses the Mercerization/Alkali surface treatment method for NFs and its effects on the fibres regarding the Mercerization/Alkali surface treatment method for NFs and its effect on the fibres regarding their utilization in the polymer composites, the morphological features, and mechanical properties of composites.

Traditionally, the main structural components of land transport vehicles, e.g. passenger vehicles and trucks, have been made of metals such as steel and aluminium. As the number of vehicles increases on the road, global effort to reduce pollutant emission has put pressure on the vehicle manufacturers to design and manufacture fuel-efficient vehicles using strong and light-weight structures made of materials such as fibre-reinforced polymer composite (FRP) laminates [1] . For instance, with regard to the new Volvo performance car, Polestar 1, a majority of the parts in the upper body, including doors, bonnet and boot lid, are made of carbon FRP (CFRP) laminates [2] . Interestingly, this design not only provides for maximum stiffness and lightness, but reduces the weight of the upper body, lowers the vehicle’s centre of gravity that results in enhanced handling, performance and drivability [2] .

The objectives of this research are to characterize the effects of hydration on the elasticity and fracture properties of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and PAN/halloysite meshes and to use the information for design analysis for water filtration application. Electron micrographs of these meshes revealed pore diameters ranging 1–7 μm. Direct measurement of the mesh stiffness and strength in water revealed that PAN/halloysite meshes were stiffer and stronger than PAN meshes. Solution diffusion model predicted that PAN/halloysite mesh can support a water flux of 2.4 times higher than PAN mesh without breaking during desalination. However, wet meshes were weaker and less stiff than dry meshes. This was attributed to a reduced effectiveness for stress transfer between fibres, caused by the presence of water in (and swelling of) the inter-fibre space, as reflected by a reduction in the volume fraction of the respective PAN and halloysite components.

The development of armour systems with higher ballistic resistance and light weight has gained considerable attention as an increasing number of countries are recognising the need to build up advanced self-defence system to deter potential military conflicts and threats. Graphene is a two dimensional one-atom thick nanomaterial which possesses excellent tensile strength (130 GPa) and specific penetration energy (10 times higher than steel). It is also lightweight, tough and stiff and is expected to replace the current aramid fibre-based polymer composites. Currently, insights derived from the study of the nacre (natural armour system) are finding applications on the development of artificial nacre structures using graphene-based materials that can achieve high toughness and energy dissipation. The aim of this review is to discuss the potential of graphene-based nanomaterials with regard to the penetration energy, toughness and ballistic limit for personal body armour applications. This review addresses the cutting-edge research in the ballistic performance of graphene-based materials through theoretical, experimentation as well as simulations. The influence of fabrication techniques and interfacial interactions of graphene-based bioinspired polymer composites for ballistic application are also discussed. This review also covers the artificial nacre which is shown to exhibit superior mechanical and toughness behaviours.