On mechanical, thermal and morphological investigations of almond skin powder-reinforced polylactic acid feedstock filament. (February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Singh, Rupinder; Kumar, Ranvijay; Pawanpreet, ; Singh, Mohit; Singh, Jatenderpal
• Is Part Of: Journal of thermoplastic composite materials. Volume 35:Number 2(2022)
• Page Start: 230
• Page End: 248
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Subjects: Almond skin powder -- recycling -- twin-screw extrusion -- fused filament fabrication -- thermal analysis; Thermoplastic composites -- Periodicals; 668.423
• DOI: 10.1177/0892705719886010
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0892-7057

Abstract

The almond skin powder is one of the biodegradable and biocompatible food wastes that can be used as reinforcement in polylactic acid (PLA) for preparation of biomedical scaffolds/implants (for high mechanical performance) by fused filament fabrication. The present study deals with the melt processing of almond skin powder as reinforcement from 0 wt% to 5 wt% in the PLA matrix by twin-screw extrusion process. The results of the study suggested that reinforcing the almond skin powder as 2.5 wt% in the PLA matrix mechanically strengthens the feedstock filaments but the increase in the proportion up to 5 wt% reduces the mechanical strength to a significant level. A similar trend has been observed in differential scanning calorimeter observations for thermal stability analysis. As regard to the rheological property is concerned, the melt flow index shows a significant reduction with reinforcement of almond skin powder in PLA. The results are also supported by photomicrographic analysis (for surface properties) and Taguchi-based optimization of twin-screw extrusion process parameters (for multifactor optimization).