PLA and P3HB-3HH-based bio-composites made with cotton fabric

Composite panels were produced using film stacking procedure: a dry layer of fabric and two layers of matrix were piled up alternately and compression molded. The matrices used were PLA or PHB and the fabric was a cotton twill fabric without any chemical pre-treatment or treated with an epoxy functional oligomeric acrylic polymer (J). The PLA-based composite had clearly better mechanical properties than the pure matrix, namely +75%, +39% and +45% for elastic modulus, elongation at break and tensile strength, respectively. The PHB gave dramatic results reaching increases of +103%, +83%,+104% of the same three parameters. The J additive employed in the PLA gave no substantial changes but reduced the elongation at break. The same J additive in the PHB-based composite apparently increased the adeshion between matrix and fabric, showing an modulus and strenght increase with a reduction of elongation at break.