Composites from keratin biofibers. Study of compatibility using polyolephinic matrices

Abstract

The study deals with the analysis and characterization of chicken feathers (CFs) based thermoplastic composites. The performance of the composite has been characterized in terms of mechanical properties which have been related to the fibre-matrix compatibility of the composite components analyzed by FTIR and SEM. The results have shown that the addition of short CFs as a filler to the PP thermoplastic matrix did not significantly improve the mechanical properties. A slightly increase of the stiffness has been observed when using small quantities of CFs (5-10% v/v) that provides to the composites a more brittle behaviour. Analogous behaviour has been observed for HDPE/CFs composites. FTIR spectroscopy and SEM micrographs analyses show limited compatibility between the composite components (CFs and polyolephinic matrices)