Produção de um compósito a partir da reutilização da fibra do coco misturado ao polietileno de tereftalato - (PET)

Abstract

It is estimated that the use of composites made of vegetable fibers together with plastic materials may have a significant increase due to factors such as the high cost of synthetic fibers and the growing demand for low-cost materials from renewable sources of raw materials that do not cause damage to the environment. On the other hand, the consumption of materials from polymeric sources has been on the rise, and with the development of technologies and industrial processes, the departments that consume plastic have also increased and developed. Plant fibers are natural polymers that have lower density than synthetic fibers and cause less wear on the equipment that is used to process composite materials. Synthetic polymers, on the other hand, can present great risks to the ecosystem and the consumers' health; they, in turn, are not biodegradable, and are responsible for generating by-products that can cause serious environmental problems. For the formulation of the composite, the most appropriate method is the grafting method, because it provides a better aggregation of the materials used. Thus, a new composite was developed through the reuse of a natural polymer and a synthetic polymer, using coconut fiber mixed with terephthalate polyethylene-PET. Through characterization it is evident that the formulated composite presents good parameters, thus evidencing relatively good microhardness results, and the reduction of pores significantly increases the strength of the material