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Improvements to Stitching Controls for Manufacturing Advanced Stitched Composites

Stitched composites have been extensively studied and have been shown to have benefits over unstitched composites for stiffened structures, including improved damage tolerance, reduced weight, and fewer fasteners. These benefits make stitched composites attractive from a performance perspective, however, the nature of stitching the preforms prior to infusion includes additional manufacturing steps and equipment compared to conventional resin infusion. Stitching of composite material structures at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is performed at the Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites (ISAAC) facility using control algorithms developed by the lead author. Two deficiencies have been identified in the current control algorithms, and mitigations for these deficiencies were developed within the Hi-Rate Composite Aircraft Manufacturing (HiCAM) project and are presented herein. First, decoupling stitch translation and rotation takes more time for stitching since two robot operation control steps are executed for each stitch. Therefore, a method was developed to determine when to decouple the translation and rotation for stitching, which reduces stitch time by decoupling the operation control steps only when necessary to execute the stitch properly. Second, a correction to the sideslip stitching approach that eliminates a significant portion of the pre- and post-stitching activities was developed. The developed method adjusts the sideslip stitch angle based on the rotations of previous stitches to ensure that the width of the stitching seam remains constant along its length. Constant seam width eliminates observed overlap of the insertion and catcher thread portions for highly curved paths, which maintains the desired uniformity of through-the-thickness architecture along the seam and eliminates the local degradation of properties where the insertion needle is too close to, or crosses, the catcher needle portion of the seam.

stitching↗
DOE OSTI2019

Impact of Compositional Fluctuation on Dislocations in Metamorphic III-V Solar Cells Revealed by Cathodoluminescense Spectrum Imaging

Compositionally graded buffers (CGBs) are essential components of high-efficiency III-V inverted metamorphic solar cells. High-quality CGBs with low defect densities are a requirement for high device efficiencies. In this work we use cathodoluminescence spectrum imaging to investigate the effect of growth conditions on the material properties of AlyGa1-x-yInxAs CGBs with xIn = > 0.30. We find that significant compositional fluctuation exists in these materials, and that it correlates with the distribution of threading dislocations in the CGBs. Threading dislocations collect in regions with large compositional fluctuation, implying that concurrent strain fluctuations in these regions restrict dislocation motion. Thus, the compositional fluctuation leads to elevated threading dislocation densities that degrade CGB quality. We investigate the effectiveness of specific growth conditions at suppressing compositional fluctuation and limiting threading dislocation density, and find that CGBs grown at high temperatures with high Al-content exhibit the lowest defect densities. We also demonstrate that use of a high V/III ratio also suppresses compositional fluctuation and defect density. These materials insights lead directly to the development of metamorphic Ga1-xInxAs solar cells grown on AlyGa1-x-yInxAs CGBs with improved device efficiency.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Nanoscale Three-Dimensional Imaging of Degradation in Composite Si-Containing Anodes

The use of silicon (Si) in next-generation lithium-ion battery (LIB) anodes has the potential to dramatically improve electrochemical performance over current LIB graphite (Gr) anodes, due to silicon’s higher specific capacity.1 However, widespread implementation of Si-containing anodes is inhibited by issues such as significant Si volume expansion during lithiation and an unstable solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI), resulting in unreliable performance and poor cycle life. Currently, composite anodes with both Si and graphite active materials are used to increase capacity and mitigate some of the limitations associated with Si. In composite electrodes with a heterogeneous distribution of components with varying electrical properties (including Si, Gr, conductive carbon additive, and binder), it is important to understand the local distribution of each component to correlate with electrochemical processes, particularly localized degradation and heterogeneous aging, and to optimize performance. To investigate Si-containing composite anodes in the nanoscale, we use scanning spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM), a form of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) that probes local electronic resistivity. By examining the intrinsic electronic resistivity contrast between the anode components, separate phases can be distinguished and understood within the composite structure.2 This work studies the effect of electrochemical cycling in two different electrolytes on component distribution and aging by comparing the electrical and structural evolution of composite Si-graphite electrodes and SEI before and after charge-discharge cycling. 1. W. J. Zhang. A review of the electrochemical performance of alloy anodes for lithium-ion batteries J. Power Sources 196 13–24 (2011). 2. C. Stetson, Z. Huey, A. Downard, Z. Li, B. To, A. Zakutayev, C.-S. Jiang, M. Al-Jassim, D. Finegan, S.-D. Han and S. DeCaluwe: Three-Dimensional Mapping of Resistivity and Microstructure of Composite Electrodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries. ACS Nano Letters Accepted (2020).

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2013

The aqueous corrosion behavior of technetium - Alloy and composite materials

Metal waste forms are under study as possible disposal forms for technetium and other fission products. The alloying of Tc is desirable to reduce the melting point of the Tc-containing metal waste form and potentially improve its corrosion resistance. Technetium-nickel composites were made by mixing the two metal powders and pressing the mixture to make a pellet. The as-pressed composite materials were compared to sintered composites and alloys of identical composition in electrochemical corrosion tests. As-pressed samples were not robust enough for fine polishing and only a limited number of corrosion tests were performed. Alloys and composites with 10 wt% Tc appear to be more corrosion resistant at open circuit than the individual components based on linear polarization resistance and polarization data. The addition of 10 wt% Tc to Ni appears beneficial at open circuit, but detrimental upon anodic polarization. Qualitatively, the polarizations of 10 wt% Tc alloys and composites appear like crude addition of Tc plus Ni. The 1 wt% Tc alloys behave like pure Ni, but some effect of Tc is seen upon polarization. Cathodic polarization of Tc by Ni appears feasible based on open circuit potential measurements, however, zero resistance ammetry and solution measurements are necessary to confirm cathodic protection.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Fabrication and Testing of Complex Silicon Carbide Composite Structures

The ability to fabricate larger complex silicon carbide composites is an enabling technology for advanced reactors. Processing techniques to make complex SiC/SiC structures must be versatile enough to facilitate fabrication of both very large components (>1 m), as well as very small feature sizes (<1 mm), minimize the amount of machining required to complete the final part, and must also provide composite material with similar performance to bulk properties previously established for planar SiC/SiC composite material. This paper presents results on fabrication of complex silicon carbide structures and targeted testing aimed specifically at understanding how complex features impact composite performance. Silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon carbide matrix, silicon carbide fiber-reinforced composites (SiC/SiC) are a strong candidate for cladding and core structure used in advanced reactor concepts such as General Atomics' (GA) Energy Multiplier Module (EM{sup 2}) as well as accident tolerant fuel (ATF) in LWRs. SiC retains its strength up to very high temperatures, is stable under irradiation, and shows favorable neutronics and oxidation resistance compared to alloy alternatives. However, unlike metals, SiC cannot be easily machined, formed or welded to make the more complex core components needed to fully realize the benefits of advanced high temperature reactors. TEP processing provides an appealing route to achieving SiC/SiC composite structures with enhanced feature complexity. This is a critical development in the maturation of SiC/SiC for in-core structural materials in advanced reactors. This processing route provides an avenue to make large, dense, complex structures. Experiments have shown retention of strength and pseudo-ductility with hole spacing as small as 4 mm with potential for still smaller feature spacing. The results indicate that feature spacing is not limited by processing effects, but instead by the fiber architecture. The lower limit of feature spacing will likely have implications on potential core loading limits in advanced nuclear reactors utilizing SiC/SiC. (authors)

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Thermal Diffusivity Measurement of Irradiated SiC-SiC Composite Material

Silicon Carbide fiber and matrix composite (SiC-SiC) is being considered as a fuel cladding candidate because of its high melting point, low susceptibility to corrosion, good thermal and mechanical shock resistance, and low degradation of mechanical properties under irradiation. The thermal properties of SiC-SiC composite depend heavily on the fabrication process, thus cannot be simply referenced from available database. Similarly, the influence of irradiation on SiC-SiC composite thermal properties needs to be measured to provide general trends of property degradation. For ion irradiated samples, the damaged layer is only a few to a few tens of micrometers. It is impossible to directly measure the bulk property change of a SiC-SiC composite because of the thin, damaged layer. This paper focuses on a methodology that is based on microscale measurement of fiber and matrix properties to determine the overall bulk property change due to ion irradiation. Laser-based photothermal reflectance technique is one of the ideal methods to measure local thermal conductivity and diffusivity with high spatial resolution. The main principle of this technique is to heat the solid sample using an intensity-modulated laser, and scan the sample with a constant intensity continuous-wave (CW) laser to detect the phase lag of the thermal wave propagation. On bulk, isotropic material, if the heating laser intensity is modulated as a sine wave, thermal diffusivity of the sample can be derived from the phase lag, scan distance and modulation frequency in a straight forward manner. By using more specific analytical models, thermal conductivity and diffusivity in complicated cases, such as layered structure materials, composite materials, and/or anisotropic materials, are measurable as well. In this work, a new measurement approach of SiC-SiC composite thermal diffusivity is presented. Due to the micrometer spatial resolution of the photothermal reflectance technique, the measurements are performed locally on fibers along both radial and axial directions, and on the matrix. The influence of Silicon ion irradiation (75 MeV, 10 dpa) is then examined by comparing the experimental results of samples before and after irradiation. (authors)

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Comparison of Thermal Diffusivity Degradation of Irradiated Zirlo and SiC-SiC Composite

Zirlo (Zircaloy cladding material from Westinghouse) has been widely used as the fuel cladding material in Light Water Reactors because of its high melting point, low susceptibility to corrosion, good thermal and mechanical shock resistance, and low degradation of mechanical properties under irradiation. But as Zirlo reacts with water at high temperature, which can trigger serious accidents, efforts have been made to explore better candidates to replace Zirlo in the water-cooled reactors. SiC-SiC composite is considered as one of the most viable options due to its comparable mechanical performances and corrosion resistance. However, one of the most important properties, thermal diffusivities of both Zirlo and SiC-SiC composite, and their degradation after irradiation, are not well known yet. Ion-irradiated samples are used to study the thermal property degradation caused by irradiation instead of the neutron-irradiated ones due to the significantly lower radioactivity. The microstructural damage is estimated from the software simulation SRIM/TRIM based on the energy and fluence of the ion, and the target material, and represented by DPA (displacement by atom). Different from neutron-irradiated samples, the damaged layer of ion-irradiated samples is only a few to a few tens of micrometers thick, and the damage is depth dependent. It is impossible to directly measure the bulk property change, and a microscale measurement technique is necessary. Laser-based photothermal reflectance technique is one of the ideal methods to measure local thermal conductivity and diffusivity with high spatial resolution. The main principle of this technique is to heat the solid sample using an intensity-modulated laser, and scan the sample with a constant intensity continuous-wave (CW) laser to detect the thermal wave propagation. On bulk, isotropic material, if the heating laser intensity is modulated as a sine wave, thermal diffusivity of the sample can be derived from the phase lag of the thermal wave, scan distance and modulation frequency in a straight forward manner. By using more specific analytical models, thermal conductivity and diffusivity in complicated cases, such as layered structure materials, composite materials, and/or anisotropic materials, are measurable as well. In this work, thermal diffusivity of the light damage layer of the post-irradiation Zirlo and SiC-SiC composite are measured and compared. The Zirlo sample is irradiated by Ni{sup 9+} ion, and SiC-SiC composite material is irradiated by Si{sup 7+} ion. The peak DPA of both sample is similar as ∼10. For ion-irradiated materials, DPA is known to increase with depth before it reaches the peak, and then sharply drop to zero. In term of light damage layer in this manuscript, we mean by the layer with a DPA smaller than 5% maximum value. In this layer DPA increases slowly and smoothly with depth, and the structure and thus thermal properties are more spatially uniform. For the SiC-SiC composite, the measurements are separately conducted on fibers along radial or axial direction, and on the matrix. Our measurement results show that with similar microstructural damage, thermal diffusivity of matrix SiC reduces more significantly than that of Zirlo. For fiber SiC that has a much lower thermal diffusivity than the matrix SiC before irradiation, the post-irradiation effect on thermal diffusivity is not obvious.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Sources and composition of submicron organic mass in marine aerosol particles

Recent studies have proposed a variety of interpretations of the sources and composition of atmospheric marine aerosol particles (aMA) based on a range of physical and chemical measurements collected during open-ocean research cruises. To investigate the processes that affect marine organic particles, this study uses the characteristic functional group composition (from Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy) of aMAP from five ocean regions to show that: (i) The organic functional group composition of aMAP that can be identified as atmospheric primary marine (ocean-derived) aerosol (aPMA) is 65±12% hydroxyl, 21±9% alkane, 6±6% amine, and 7±8% carboxylic acid functional groups. Contributions from photochemical reactions add carboxylic acid groups (15%-25%), shipping effluent in seawater and ship emissions add additional alkane groups (up to 70%), and coastal emissions mix in alkane and carboxylic acid groups from coastal pollution sources. (ii) The organic composition of aPMA is nearly identical to model generated primary marine aerosol particles (gPMA) from bubbled seawater (55% hydroxyl, 32% alkane, and 13% amine functional groups), indicating that its overall functional group composition is the direct consequence of the organic constituents of the seawater source. (iii) While the seawater organic functional group composition was nearly invariant across all three ocean regions studied, the gPMA alkane group fraction increased with chlorophyll-a concentrations (r = 0.79). gPMA from productive seawater had a larger fraction of alkane functional groups (35%) compared to gPMA from non-productive seawater (16%), likely due to the presence of surfactants in productive seawater that stabilize the bubble film and lead to preferential drainage of the more soluble (lower alkane group fraction) organic components. gPMA has a hydroxyl group absorption peak location characteristic of monosaccharides and disaccharides, where the seawater OM hydroxyl group peak location is closer to that of polysaccharides. This may result from the larger saccharides preferentially remaining in the seawater during gPMA and aPMA production

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

SCOPING MELTING STUDIES OF HIGH ALUMINA WASTE GLASS COMPOSITIONS

Glass property models will be used at the Hanford Tank Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant to formulate durable high-level waste glasses for disposal. A major effort is focused on expanding glass property models to cover a broader range of wastes and higher waste-loaded glasses. As a part of this effort, a statistically designed matrix of high-alumina glass compositions was developed. Forty five compositions were selected from the matrix to evaluate glass properties. Of these compositions, thirty three produced homogeneous glasses. The other twelve compositions contained segregated phases and high crystallinity; these were iteratively modified in an attempt to produce homogeneous glass samples while altering the original composition as little as possible. This paper focuses on the characterization of the twelve inhomogeneous compositions and their modifications using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy.

Kroll, Jared O.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optical Evidence of Compositional Fractioning between Plasma‐Condensed and Melt Pool Matter

Control of multicomponent alloys during welding is challenging because it lacks a real‐time understanding of composition. The optical emissions of plasma formed during laser‐induced metal welding correlate with the composition of particles ejected from the melt pool. Plasma emissions observed in this study contain large iron, manganese, chrome, and copper signatures, which match the composition of emitted particles. Particles recovered closest to the melt pool exhibit a core–shell morphology that is composed of iron‐manganese‐chrome intermetallic cores within copper shells. Particles collected farther from the melt pool, do not share this core–shell morphology, though similar elemental compositions are observed. The correlation between plasma optical emissions and particle composition can be used to predict the composition of the melt pool, allowing for real‐time welding and sintering control.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Discovery of New Oxygen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalysts by Combinatorial Investigation of the Ni-La-Co-Ce Oxide Composition Space

We report a new family of earth abundant electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) discovered via high throughput screening of 1771 discrete metal oxide compositions covering the nickel-lanthanum-cobalt-cerium composition space. The catalytic performance of each of these compositions was measured under conditions applicable to distributed solar fuels generation using a three-electrode scanning drop electrochemical cell. These high throughput measurements show enhanced activity for catalyst compositions containing 20-65 metal atom % Ce. The catalytic activity and stability of a representative highly active composition (Ni 0.1 La 0.1 Co 0.3 Ce 0.5 )O x was verified by standard rotating disc electrochemistry. Catalysts of this composition showed stable operational performance at 10 mA cm -2 for 2 h and survived a 100 h endurance test in a testbed electrolyzer.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Reliability in the characterization of fiber length distributions of injection molded long carbon fiber composites

The mechanical properties of a discontinuous fiber reinforced composite material are dependent on the length of the reinforcing fibers. Long-fiber thermoplastic (LFT) composites offer a compromise between ease of manufacture and mechanical properties for structural applications and are conventionally made using fibers that are initially 10–14 mm long. However, fiber attrition during the injection molding process significantly reduces the final fiber lengths in molded composite and produces a fiber length distribution (FLD), which depends on the processing parameters. Thus, accurate FLD measurements are important for reliable predictions of the composite properties. Here, we present a detailed methodology for experimentally measuring the FLD in LFT composites based on best practices. Possible biases occurring during the measurement process are discussed and their effect on the measured FLD and averaged fiber length values are evaluated. We then employ a Mori–Tanaka implementation of the Eshelby model to predict the elastic stiffness of the LFT composite and analyze the sensitivity of the stiffness values to the biases in the FLD measurements.

long-fiber thermoplastics, injection molding, fibe↗
DOE OSTI2021

Hybrid of multi‐dimensional fillers for thermally enhanced polyamide 12 composites fabricated by selective laser sintering

Abstract Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing technology that can provide a novel strategy to manufacture complex polymer‐based composites with tailored properties. In this study, polyamide 12 (PA12) composite powders based on Al 2 O 3 , boron nitride (BN), and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were prepared via a two‐step mixing approach. Morphology characterization techniques indicated that the fillers were uniformly dispersed in the PA12 matrix as expected. Under the optimum 3D‐printing parameters, the fabrication of SLS parts with high filler loading could be obtained. With 40 wt% Al 2 O 3 , 8 wt% BN, and 2 wt% CNT hybrid fillers, the thermal conductivity of PA12 composites could reach 1.09 W/mK. It could be attributed to the synergistic effect of multi‐dimensional fillers to form dense and continuous thermal conduction paths. The factors influencing the performance of PA12 composites such as melting and crystallization behaviors, dielectric properties, and mechanical properties were also discussed. The results show that these composites have favorable dielectric and mechanical properties. Overall, the PA12 composites fabricated by SLS technology in this study exhibit excellent thermal management ability.

Yuan, Yue↗
DOE OSTI2023

Combinatorial Growth of Vertically Aligned Nanocomposite Thin Films for Accelerated Exploration in Composition Variation

Combinatorial growth is capable of creating a compositional gradient for thin film materials and thus has been adopted to explore composition variation mostly for metallic alloy thin films and some dopant concentrations for ceramic thin films. This study uses a combinatorial pulsed laser deposition method to successfully fabricate two‐phase oxide–oxide vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) thin films of La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 (LSMO)‐NiO with variable composition across the film area. The LSMO‐NiO compositional gradient across the film alters the two‐phase morphology of the VAN through varying nanopillar size and density. Additionally, the magnetic anisotropy and magnetoresistance properties of the nanocomposite thin films increase with increasing NiO composition. This demonstration of a combinatorial method for VAN growth can increase the efficiency of nanocomposite thin film research by allowing all possible compositions of thin film materials to be explored in a single deposition.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Codesigning Alloy Compositions of CdSe y Te 1− y Absorbers and Mg x Zn 1− x O Contacts to Increase Solar Cell Efficiency

Thin‐film solar cells such as CdTe are a major commercial photovoltaic technology, with more than 25 GW installed worldwide and levelized costs of electricity competitive with fossil fuels. Further progress may result from integrating CdSe y Te 1− y absorbers with Mg x Zn 1− x O contacts, but the device efficiency is difficult to maximize due to coupled dependence on chemical composition of both alloys. Herein, a high‐throughput approach is demonstrated to codesign chemical compositions in alloyed Mg x Zn 1− x O/CdSe y Te 1− y thin‐film solar cells, using combinatorial libraries of PV devices with orthogonal composition gradients in CdSe y Te 1− y absorbers and Mg x Zn 1− x O contacts. It is found that the solar cell performance is a strong and coupled function of both elemental compositions, with efficiency up to 17.7% ( V OC = 836 mV, fill factor = 69%, J SC = 30.6 mA cm −2 ) at atomic compositions of Mg/(Mg + Zn) ≈18% and average Se/(Se + Te) ≈4%. These performance trends among >100 devices are explained by >100 ns lifetime of photoexcited charge carriers at the Mg x Zn 1− x O/CdSe y Te 1− y interface where strong Se accumulation is also observed. This study reports the optimal compositions of the commercially relevant Mg x Zn 1− x O/CdSe y Te 1− y solar cells and demonstrates a general approach to codesigning performance of alloyed thin‐film solar cells and other optoelectronic devices.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Aluminum/SmCo 5 composites for structural and magnetic applications

Metal-bonded magnetic composites (MBMCs) present a promising alternative to dense sintered magnets, particularly for intricate components. Compared to polymer-based bonded magnets, MBMCs have wider applicability in harsh environments. In this paper, we demonstrate a solid-state shear-based manufacturing technique to introduce localized magnetization into a paramagnetic aluminum matrix by embedding SmCo5 permanent magnet particles. Our magnetic composites display hard magnetic behavior with a coercivity of 13 kOe and a remanent magnetization of 4.32 emu/g. In addition to magnetization, we also report a 9% improvement in Young’s modulus. Despite the local temperature rise during processing, the magnetic phases didn’t decompose into unwanted phases, preserving the composite's hard magnetic properties. Creation of an interfacial metallurgical bond with the matrix ensured the suitability of the composites for structural applications. Our study investigates the mechanical, and functional properties of composites, paving the way for lightweight structural magnetic composites with a transformative potential in the aerospace, nuclear, and automotive applications. This work underscores the potential for further optimization and development to drive innovations in magnet and equipment design.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

A Novel Wastewater Treating Material: Cationic Poly Acrylamide/Diatomite Composite Flocculant

In this work, poly(methacrylatoethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride -co-acrylamide)/diatomite composite flocculant was synthesized via in situ polymerization in aqueous solution and applied in waste water treatment. The structure of composite flocculants was characterized by FT-IR, {sup 1}HNMR and XRD, TGA and viscometer. Herein, the apparent viscosity of composite flocculants was employed as comparison standard of their performance to evaluate the influence of the reaction parameters, such as monomer feeding ratio, diatomite mass fraction and polymerization temperature, etc. on their flocculation performance. And based on the above investigations, the optimum synthesis condition could be found. By comparing flocculation properties of composite flocculants with that of the conventional cationic flocculant, the dosage of composite flocculant that could make the transmittance of treated waste water exceed 95 % was only 7.5 ppm which was far lower than that of conventional flocculant (60–90 ppm). Meanwhile, the settling time was lower than 5 s which was similarly to that of conventional flocculant. Finally, the conclusion was that the composite flocculant owned higher absorption capacity and larger chain extending space than those of conventional linear flocculant due to the introduction of diatomite as backbone, which could make linear polymer chains free from entanglement and improve the flocculation capacity notably.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Preparation and Characterization of PVC Matrix Composites with Biochemical Sludge

Biochemical sludge (BS), generated in the waste water treatment of paper mills, was pretreated by enzyme hydrolysis. The effect and action mechanism of the enzymatic treatment on the properties of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) matrix composites with BS were discussed. Results showed that when the filler content was 30 wt%, the tensile strength of the PVC composites filled with BS and its modified products which were pretreated by laccase, cellulase and hemicellulase can be increased by 38.64, 67.4, 63.5 and 66.3% than the PVC composite filled with calcium carbonate. When the dosage of filler was 40 wt%, the elastic modulus of PVC composites filled with BS and its above three modified products decreased by 53.3, 52.3, 50.0 and 46.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, the thermal stability of PVC composites can also be improved at the temperature of over 340 °C. It can be concluded that the enzyme pretreatment can improve the application performance of BS usage in PVC matrix composites.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗