Ecofriendly biodegradable composite material for thermal insulation applications

The present research work aims to develop environmentally friendly sustainable green composite material that has good thermal insulation properties. Biodegradable elephant grass fiber was incorporated as reinforcement in to polylactic acid (PLA) matrix. Compression moulding method was applied in the development of ecofriendly composites. In the process of fabrication of composites, percentage of fiber content was varied from 0 to 50. Experimental data of the thermal conductivity for the composites were accomplished using thermal conductivity meter. The variation of thermal conductivity as a function of fiber content (0% to 50wt % ) and temperature ( 30 °C to 120° C ) was studied. Results showed that the thermal conductivity of composites decreased from 0.164 W/(m.K) to 0.126 W/(m.K) when fiber content increased from 0 % to 50 % (weight basis). The reduction in thermal conductivity of PLA composite with elephant grass fiber at 50% fiber content was 26.34 % compared to plain PLA. The natural fiber reinforced PLA composites developed in this study could replace petrochemical based insulation materials.