Preparation and properties of several Chinese herbal residue/polylactic acid composites

Author
Feng Yan-Hong
Li Xiang-Li
Jin Gang⇑
Qu Jin-Ping
He He-Zhi

1. National Engineering Research Center of Novel Equipment for Polymer Processing, The Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering of the Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

1. Jin Gang, National Engineering Research Center of Novel Equipment for Polymer Processing, The Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering of the Ministry of Education, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381#, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510641, People’s Republic of China. Email: pmrdd@scut.edu.cn

Abstract

Disposal of Chinese herbal residues (CHRs) during Chinese herbal medicine production and processing has become a problem that requires attention. In this study, CHRs were pretreated by steam explosion or pulverization and composites were prepared by mixing pretreated CHRs with polylactic acid. The mechanical properties of composites of CHRs pretreated by two different methods were compared, the main compositions of CHRs were analyzed, and the morphology of various CHRs and brittle fracture surfaces of composites were observed by scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the mechanical properties of the composites are closely related to the herbal species and pretreatment methods. The mechanical properties of CHR composites pretreated by steam explosion are superior to those pretreated by pulverization. Choosing CHRs with large fiber cell wall–lumen ratio, high lignin and cellulose contents, low contents of hetero cells and hemicellulose are helpful in making composites with good comprehensive performance.

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http://jtc.sagepub.com/content/28/2/214.abstract