The comparative advantage of using vegetable fibers as reinforcement (fillers) attracted manufacturing industries over conventional composites. Natural fibers are purely green features that can easily decompose in a normal way to water and CO₂ when encountered with moisture during their disposal. In this research, the effect of pre-treatment and properties of ramie fibers reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) composite were studied. Before the composite preparation, ramie fibers were soaked in a solution of alkali (sodium hydroxide) and silane coupling agent to provide better compatibility between ramie fibers and PLA interface. Additionally, a design containing nine samples was conducted to study the effect of temperature, fiber volume ratio, molding pressure and time on composite fabrication. From the results, optimum processing parameters were identified based on the tensile, bending and impact strengths improvement from various tested samples. Furthermore, this study highlights the degradation process and properties of ramie fibers reinforced PLA composites by underground burial experimental procedures.

In this study, the properties of molded ramie fibers reinforced with polylactic acid (PLA) biocomposites were investigated. Before preparation of composites, diammonium phosphate (DAP) was applied to the surface of ramie fibers with and without pretreatments to analyze the interfacial adhesion of ramie–PLA composite. Wettability and adhesion behavior of ramie fibers in the PLA resin were characterized by contact angle (CA) measurements. The surface chemical analysis was performed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The thermal properties were recorded using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The wetting analysis results showed that the introduction of DAP treatment to ramie fibers significantly improved the wetting behavior of ramie in the PLA resin. Similarly, the results of TGA indicated that DAP treatment substantially decreased the degradation temperature of the composites. The result of FTIR was also consistent with the results of wettability, TGA, and DSC for the observed changes of peaks in the transmission spectrum.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in using plant fibers to reinforce materials in modern manufacturing. This study focuses on the development of a novel biocomposite made from an enset fiber (EF) and polylactic acid (PLA) matrix using compression molding at a hot-pressing temperature of 170 °C and pressure of 7 MPa for 7 min. Before preparing the biocomposites, the fibers were chemically modified with different concentrations of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and cut into shorter fibers with a 40 mm average length in size. Then, the extent of modifications on the mechanical properties, dynamic mechanical behavior, morphology, and water absorption were investigated. The tensile, flexural, and Charpy impact tests were carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties of the samples as per ASTM standards. Moreover, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and the water absorbency of the biocomposites were investigated, and the results were graphically shown and explained. The results indicate that the biocomposite treated with 5% NaOH exhibited significant improvements in tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength compared to the untreated composite. The tensile modulus and flexural modulus of 5% NaOH-modified enset fiber biocomposite were also enhanced by 55.8% and 70.3% compared to untreated enset fiber biocomposite. The highest tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength found for the PLA composite reinforced by EF treated with 5% w/v NaOH solution were 20.16 MPa, 30.21 MPa, and 12.02 kJ/m², respectively. In general, the modification of natural fibers improves adhesion at the interface and therefore decreases the water absorption and improves the dynamic mechanical properties of biocomposites.