Natural Fibers, Biopolymers, and Biocomposites

853 Pages·2005·22.34 MB·English

by  Amar K. Mohanty

NATURAL FIBERS,
BIOPOLYMERS, AND
BIOCOMPOSITES
Edited by
Amar K. Mohanty
Manjusri Misra
Lawrence T. Drzal
Boca Raton London New York Singapore
A CRC title, part of the Taylor & Francis imprint, a member of the
Taylor & Francis Group, the academic division of T&F Informa plc.
1741_Discl Page 1 Friday, February 18, 2005 11:12 AM
Published in 2005 by
CRC Press
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© 2005 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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International Standard Book Number-10: 0-8493-1741-X (Hardcover)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-8493-1741-5 (Hardcover)
Library of Congress Card Number 2004058580
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Natural fibers, biopolymers, and biocomposites/edited by Amar K. Mohanty, Manjusri Misra, Lawrence
T. Drzal.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8493-1741-X (alk. paper)
1. Polymeric composites. 2. Biopolymers. 3. Fibers. I. Mohanty, Amar K. II. Misra, Manjusri. III.
Drzal, Lawrence T.
TA418.9.C6N373 2005
620.1’92--dc22 2004058580
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1741_C00_alter.qxd 2/23/2005 12:18 PM Page v
This book is dedicated to the committed community of current and future scientists,
engineers, academics, students, civil servants, and entrepreneurs through whose
interest, dedication, and preseverance the transition to a sustainable, biobased
materials industry is becoming a reality.
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Preface
We are living in an interesting world. Our society has achieved enormous
advances in quality of life due to an extensive discovery and availability of
plastics derived from petroleum. However, as with any technology, unantic-
ipated negative secondary effects are produced as well. The persistence of
plastics in the environment, shortage of landfill space, concerns over emis-
sions resulting from incineration, and hazards to human health as well as
hazards to animals, birds, and fish from entrapment or ingestion of these
materials have spurred the efforts to find more environment friendly alter-
native materials. The depletion of petroleum resources coupled with increase
in environmental regulations have added to this effort of finding new mate-
rials and products that are compatible with the environment and independ-
ent of fossil fuels. Industries are developing and manufacturing “greener”
materials; government is encouraging biobased product research; academi-
cians are searching for eco-friendly materials; and the public is coming to
value the benefit of environment friendly products and processes, but at
affordable prices. Biobased materials offer a potential solution to this complex
problem.
Natural fibers are now emerging as viable alternatives to glass fibers
either alone or combined in composite materials for various applications in
automotive parts, building structures and rigid packaging materials. The
advantages of natural fibers over synthetic or man-made fibers such as glass
are low cost, low density, competitive specific mechanical properties, carbon
dioxide sequestration, sustainability, recyclability, and biodegradability.
Biobased polymers may be obtained from renewable resources and are
gaining much importance over petroleum-based biodegradable polymers in
recent years. Biopolymers have started migrating into the mainstream and
biobased polymers may soon be competing with commodity plastics. Some
of the examples for biopolymers include cellulosic biopolymers derived
from renewable cellulose, starch plastics, corn-derived plastics, and bacterial
polyesters.
Biocomposites produced from the combination of biofibers and bioplastics
produce the necessary performance either entirely or in combination with
petroleum-based polymers and offer a path to achieve ecofriendly materials in
the 21st century. However, the need to produce 100% biobased materials as
substitutes for petroleum-based materials is not immediate. Biocomposites
that contain a significant content of biobased materials can presently achieve
this at an affordable cost–performance ratio to compete with petroleum-based
materials and still maintain a positive balance among ecology, economy, and
technology.
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This publication is intended to provide a comprehensive source for the lat-
est advances in the area of biofibers, biopolymers, and biocomposites that can
substitute for and compete with traditional petroleum-based materials and at
the same time reduce environmental harm while maintaining the economic
viability. We have assembled chapters on topics ranging from natural fibers
(e.g., agricultural fibers, grass fibers, straw-based fibers, and traditional wood
fibers), biopolymers to biobased composite materials in this book. In addi-
tion, we have included a comprehensive chapter on life cycle analysis of
biobased polymers and materials that is emerging as the framework upon
which sustainability of materials and processes will be established.
We hope this book will serve as a guide to (1) government policy makers
to encourage more research on the generation and use of biobased materials;
(2) industrial personnel to show that high performance, economical,
biobased products can be produced; (3) university students and faculty
researchers who are striving to advance sustainable materials and practices;
and (4) the public to illustrate that materials sustainability, biodegradability,
and environmental stewardship can be achieved without economic sacrifice.
We thank Susan G. Farmer, the former Editor of Materials Science and
Engineering Division of CRC Press, whom we met at the American Society
of Composites Annual Meeting in 2001 and who supported our ideas for this
book, all the contributing authors who have made this project a reality, and
our sincere thanks to our friends, colleagues, and students who have labored
diligently on their chapters and responded to all the constructive criticisms
that conceptualized this book. Our special thanks to Prasad V. Mulukutla
who provided special assistance at various stages of this edition.
Amar K. Mohanty
Manjusri Misra
Lawrence T. Drzal
Michigan State University
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About the Editors
Dr. Amar K. Mohanty is an Associate Professor in the
School of Packaging at Michigan State University. Prior to
this position, he was a Visiting Associate Professor in the
Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department
and Composite Materials and Structures Center at
Michigan State University. He was an Alexander Von
Humboldt Fellow at the Technical University of Berlin,
Germany, and also worked as a postdoctoral research
associate at Iowa State University. Dr. Mohanty served as
a faculty member in Chemistry at three different educational institutions in
Orissa, India, for about 10 years. He earned an M.Sc. degree (with gold medal)
in chemistry with a specialization in polymer chemistry and a Ph.D. in
Chemistry from Utkal University. He was the recipient of a young scientist
award in Orissa, India. He has more than 170 publications to his credit includ-
ing around 90 peer-reviewed journal papers, three textbooks and 6 U.S.
patents pending. He is a reviewer of more than 15 international journals and
has acted as chair and co-chair in several professional organizations. He has
served as a Guest Editor of the journal Composites Part A: Applied Science and
Manufacturing. His primary research is focused mainly on nanocomposite
materials, biocomposite/green composite materials, biodegradable poly-
mers, materials applications in packaging, and new biobased green materials
development.
Dr. Manjusri Misrais a Visiting Associate Professor in the
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
and Composite Materials and Structures Center at
Michigan State University. She earned her Ph.D. in polymer
chemistry from Utkal University, India, in 1988. She served
as a faculty member at various educational institutes under
Utkal University, Orissa, India, for more than 16 years.
During her teaching career in India, Dr. Misra pursued var-
ious research projects in the areas of conducting polymers
and bio-composites. From April 1998 to December 1998, she worked as a
Visiting Scientist at the Fritz Haber–Max Planck Institute and Hahn–Meitner
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Institute, Berlin, Germany, in the area of microemulsion polymerization.
From January 1999 to April 1999 she served as a Visiting Scientist at the
Technical University of Berlin, Germany, and worked in the areas of poly-
mers and composites. From May 1999 to December 1999 she worked at Iowa
State University in the area of biodegradable seed coating. Dr. Misra joined
Michigan State University in January 2000 and continues to pursue her
research activities in the areas of biobased materials and nanotechnology.
She has more than 150 publications to her credit as well as 6 U.S. patents
pending. She has acted as chair and co-chair in several professional organi-
zations. Her primary research focuses on biodegradable polymers, and bio-
composite and nanocomposite materials.
Professor Lawrence T. Drzal is a University Distinguished
Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and
Materials Science and Director of the Composite Materials
and Structures Center. His research interests include sur-
face and interfacial phenomena, adhesion, fiber-matrix
bonding, surface modification of polymers, nanocompos-
ites, and biomaterials. Dr. Drzal obtained a B.Ch.E. from
the University of Detroit and a Ph.D. in chemical engi-
neering from Case Western Reserve University in 1974.
From 1972 until 1985 he was employed as a military and
civilian scientist at the Air Force Materials Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, where he worked on surface and interfacial aspects of adhesively
bonded joints and the fiber-matrix interphase in composite materials.
Dr. Drzal has been elected as a Fellow of the Adhesion Society, American
Society for Composites, American Institute of Chemists, and the Society of
Plastics Engineers, and has also been elected to membership in the European
Academy of Sciences. Dr. Drzal has made over 300 presentations at national
and international conferences, published more than 250 research papers, and
has been awarded 18 patents. He is listed as one of the top ‘highly cited’
materials researchers by the Information Sciences Institute. Since 1985 he has
mentored 33 master’s, 26 doctoral, and 31 postdoctoral students at Michigan
State University. He serves on several government committees, technical
journal advisory boards, and industrial panels, and he and his students have
received several awards for their original research contributions.
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Contributors
Danny E. Akin R. B. Russell Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS,
Athens, Georgia, U.S.A.
Lars Berglund Lightweight Structures, Royal Institute of Technology,
Stockholm, Sweden
Alexander Bismarck Department of Chemical Engineering & Chemical
Technology, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Bor-Sen Chiou United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural
Research Service, Albany, California, U.S.A.
Roy B. Dodd Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering,
Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, U.S.A.
Lawrence T. Drzal Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials
Science, and Composite Materials and Structures Center, Michigan State
University, East Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A.
Jean-Pierre Latere Dwan’Isa Drug Evaluation – Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Janssen Pharmaceutica, Beerse, Belgium
Mahmoud A. Dweib ACRES Program, Department of Chemical
Engineering and Center for Composite Materials, University of Delaware,
Newark, Delaware, U.S.A.
William J. Evans Materials Research Centre, School of Engineering,
University of Wales, Swansea, United Kingdom
Christian Fürll Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam, Germany
Paul Gatenholm Department of Materials and Surface Chemistry/
Biopolymer Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg,
Sweden
Richard D. Gilbert Wood and Fiber Chemistry Group, North Carolina
State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.A.
Gregory M. Glenn United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural
Research Service, Albany, California, U.S.A.
Shankar Godavarti Aspen Research Corp., White Bear Lake, Minnesota,
U.S.A.
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Patrick Gruber Cargill Dow LLC, Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
Manorama Gupta Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee, India
Hiroyuki Hamada Advanced Fibro Science, Kyoto Institute of Technology
(KIT), Japan
Bruce R. Harte School of Packaging, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A.
Heinz Hempel Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Potsdam, Germany
David E. Henton Cargill Dow LLC, Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
Pedro J. Herrera Franco Unidad de Materiales, Centro de Investigación
Científica de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán, México
Georg Hinrichsen Technical University of Berlin, Institute of Materials
Science and Technology, Berlin, Germany
Alma Hodzic Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, James Cook
University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Bo Hu Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of
Delaware, Newark, Delaware, U.S.A.
Syed H. Imam United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural
Research Service, Albany, California, U.S.A.
Maria K. Inglesby United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural
Research Service, Albany, California, U.S.A.
Zainal A. Mohd Ishak School of Materials and Mineral Resources
Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
Umaru S. Ishiaku Advanced Fibro-Science, Kyoto Institute of Technology,
Kyoto, Japan
Maya Jacob School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University,
Kottayam, Kerala, India
Seena Joseph School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University,
Kottayam, Kerala, India
John F. Kadla Biopolymer Chemistry Group, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Kazuo Kitagawa Kyoto Municipal Industrial Research Institute, Chudoji,
Simogyo-Ku, Kyoto,Japan
Satoshi Kubo Biopolymer Chemistry Group, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada