Benjamin Cufre
Research Mentor: Dandan Zhang
Mentor Department: Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering
Author(s): Not Available
Session: Session 2 (10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 23
Abstract
When breaking down the sources of global energy consumption, the transportation of people and goods for commerce account for about 25% of worldwide energy use. In recent years, with the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions becoming a larger factor in industrial production, automobile makers have shifted to utilizing composites, which are often stronger and lighter materials. Despite this, several composites employ the use of fiberglass reinforcement, which is highly energy intensive. Natural fibers have begun to receive more attention as a replacement for fiberglass reinforcement, seeing as how they are less energy intensive and are even lighter than glass fiber. Despite this, natural fibers have not become widespread because of their less desirable mechanical properties compared to fiberglass. This research investigates processes that improve the mechanical properties of natural fibers in order to make them more viable for widescale use, including the treatment of flax fibers in supercritical carbon dioxide with and without the presence of titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Treatment of flax fibers under these conditions yielded improved results in several important categories for mechanical properties, including increases in fiber tensile modulus, ultimate tensile strength, as well as a reduction in fiber porosity. These findings indicate the existence of a cost-effective method to treat natural fibers that leads to enhanced mechanical properties, matching, and even exceeding, those of fiberglass composites, and therefore further facilitating the widespread use of natural fiber composites in replacement of fiberglass composites.
