Electrospun PLA composite fibres: implications of treated and untreated rice husk on the mechanical and fluid absorption properties

Industrial PLA obtained from Suzhou, China was used. The agro-waste (rice husk) was from a rice plantation in Abakaliki, South East, Nigeria. The solvent used in the electrospinning process was Dichloromethane by Shandong Jinhao Int`l Trade Co. Ltd. CAS number 75-09-2, with a purity of 96% and concentration of 14.9M. The pulverized and sieved Treated and Untreated rice husks served as reinforcements (i.e., fillers) for the PLA electrospun nanocomposite. The pulverized and sieved (treated and untreated) rice husks were respectively dissolved in Dichloromethane after being weighed. Different grams of PLA were also dissolved in dichloromethane solvent to form the polymer solution. The different solutions of PLA/fillers were mixed accordingly following 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 wt.% of the fillers. The solutions were electrospun and the samples were subjected to mechanical tensile test and fluid absorption test.本研究使用了购自中国苏州的工业级聚乳酸（PLA）。农业废弃物稻壳（rice husk）取自尼日利亚东南部阿巴卡利基的一处水稻种植园。静电纺丝工艺所用溶剂为二氯甲烷（Dichloromethane），由山东金浩国际贸易有限公司（Shandong Jinhao Int'l Trade Co. Ltd.）提供，其CAS号为75-09-2，纯度为96%，浓度为14.9M。经粉碎、筛分后的处理稻壳与未处理稻壳分别作为增强相（即填料），用于聚乳酸基静电纺丝纳米复合材料的制备。将经粉碎、筛分后的处理稻壳与未处理稻壳分别称重后，溶解于二氯甲烷溶剂中；同时称取不同质量的聚乳酸，将其溶解于二氯甲烷溶剂中以制备聚合物溶液。随后按照填料添加量为3%、4%、5%、6%、7%及8%质量分数的比例，将各聚乳酸/填料混合溶液均匀混合。将所得混合溶液进行静电纺丝，随后对制备得到的样品开展力学拉伸测试与液体吸收性能测试。