Water-Induced Breaking of Interfacial Cohesiveness in a Poly(lactic acid)/Miscanthus Fibers Biocomposite

The impact of the immersion in water on the morphology and the thermomechanical properties of a biocomposite made of a matrix of poly (lactic acid) (PLA) modified with an ethylene acrylate toughening agent, and reinforced with miscanthus fibers, has been investigated. Whereas no evidence of hydrolytic degradation has been found, the mechanical properties of the biocomposite have been weakened by the immersion. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pictures reveal that the water-induced degradation is mainly driven by the cracking of the fiber/matrix interface, suggesting that the cohesiveness is a preponderant factor to consider for the control of the biocomposite decomposition in aqueous environments. Interestingly, it is observed that the loss of mechanical properties is aggravated when the stereoregularity of PLA is the highest, and when increasing the degree of crystallinity. To investigate the influence of the annealing on the matrix behavior, crystallization at various temperatures has been performed on tensile bars of PLA made by additive manufacturing with an incomplete filling to enhance the contact area between water and polymer. While a clear fragilization occurs in the material crystallized at high temperature, PLA crystallized at low temperature better maintains its properties and even shows high elongation at break likely due to the low size of the spherulites in these annealing conditions. These results show that the tailoring of the mesoscale organization in biopolymers and biocomposites can help control their property evolution and possibly their degradation in water.