An all-gluten biocomposite: comparisons with carbon black and pine char composites

Oisik Das, Mikael S. Hedenqvist, Eva Johansson, Richard T. Olsson, Thomas Aditya Loho, Antonio J. Capezza, R. K. Singh Raman, Shima Holder

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

41 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Three different charcoals (gluten char, pine bark char and carbon black) were used to rectify certain property disadvantages of wheat gluten plastic. Pyrolysis process of gluten was investigated by analysing the compounds released at different stages. Nanoindentation tests revealed that the gluten char had the highest hardness (ca. 0.5 GPa) and modulus (7.8 GPa) followed by pine bark char and carbon black. The addition of chars to gluten enhanced the indenter-modulus significantly. Among all the charcoals, gluten char was found to impart the best mechanical and water resistant properties. The addition of only 6 wt% gluten char to the protein caused a substantial reduction in water uptake (by 38%) and increase of indenter-modulus (by 1525%). It was shown that it is possible to obtain protein biocomposites where both the filler and the matrix are naturally sourced from the same material, in this case, yielding an all-gluten derived biocomposite.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)42-48
Number of pages7
JournalComposites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
Volume120
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2019

Keywords

  • (Nominated) Biochar
  • A. Biocomposite
  • A. Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs)
  • B. Hardness

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