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Preparation, characterisation and application of biodegradable coarse wool-poly(lactic acid) sandwich composite

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Abstract

The presented study outlines the development and characterisation of a sandwich composite comprising coarse wool and polylactic acid (PLA). The PLA granules were placed in between two coarse wool fabrics and the sandwich model composite was prepared through hot pressing. The morphological, thermal, physico-mechanical and aging properties of the composite were systematically analysed. Additionally, as a part of product development, an acoustic panel was fabricated with the developed composites. The composite exhibited high stiffness, displaying a modulus of 964 MPa. The XRD analysis indicated that the wool-PLA composite is amorphous in nature. In the water diffusion test, the wool-PLA composite demonstrated permeability to water, resulting in 31% gain upon saturation. The accelerated UV aging did not mark significant changes in the tensile strength of the composite. However, the thermal aging led to a drastic reduction in tensile strength. During the soil burial test for 120 days, the composite lost 20% of its weight. The acoustic panel developed from the wool-PLA composite exhibited an impressive noise reduction coefficient of 0.97 and excellent thermal resistance (0.055 m2 W/K). The newly developed wool-PLA composite could find potential applications in biodegradable secondary ceilings, partition boards, thermal and acoustic panels.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to their respective institute for providing facilities to conduct the present research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, 686560, India

    Seiko Jose

  2. Textile Manufacture and Textile Chemistry Division, ICAR- Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar, Rajasthan, 304501, India

    Seiko Jose & Vinod Kadam

  3. School of Energy Materials, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, 686560, India

    Puthenpurackal Shajimon Shanumon, Milanta Tom & Sabu Thomas

  4. IRDL, Université Bretagne Sud, UMR CNRS 6027, 56100, Lorient, France

    Milanta Tom

Authors
  1. Seiko Jose
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  2. Puthenpurackal Shajimon Shanumon
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  3. Vinod Kadam
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  4. Milanta Tom
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  5. Sabu Thomas
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Contributions

SJ contributed to the conceptualisation, composite preparation and testing, PSS was involved in the first draft preparation and composite preparation, VK contributed to the analysis of acoustic and thermal properties and manuscript editing and correction, MT assisted in the testing of samples and ST was involved in the technical guidance and manuscript correction.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sabu Thomas.

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Jose, S., Shanumon, P.S., Kadam, V. et al. Preparation, characterisation and application of biodegradable coarse wool-poly(lactic acid) sandwich composite. Polym. Bull. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-024-05186-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-024-05186-0

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