INVESTIGATION OF THERMAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF PLA/HORN BIOCOMPOSITES

Mahmut Ali ERMEYDAN¹ , ONUR AYKANAT²

The horn consists of a bone core surrounded by a thick keratin coating. Keratin in the structure of horns is a kind of protein with high stability and low solubility. Wastes like wool, hair, beak, feather, horn etc. in butchery and textile industries contain keratin. In this study, biocomposite material was obtained with buffalo horn waste material and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) polymer. The biocomposite material was produced with a PLA / Horn ratio of 75/25 by weight. Composite production was carried out with 40 L / D twin screw extruder at a maximum temperature of 180°C. Extruded granules were turned into plates with a hot press and test samples were prepared with a laser cutter. Tensile and bending tests were performed on the biocomposite test samples. For chemical properties, FTIR spectroscopy and for thermal properties, TGA analysis were performed. The waste buffalo horn lowered the density of the composite material. It was observed that the tensile and bending strength of PLA / Horn composite decreased but there was no change in tensile and bending modulus values.

Keywords
Polylactic Acid (PLA), Horn, Keratin, Biocomposite, Mechanical Properties,