COMPOSITE NANOFIBERS: POLYMER WOOD DUST (GREEN COMPOSITES)

The paper describes preparation of nano fiber composites made of polyvinyl butyrate (PVB) and wood dusts. The used wood dusts of nano and micro dimensions were obtained by grinding of exotic woods garapa and teak. Electrostatic spinning technology Nanospider was used to prepare nanoparticles from the following mixtures: Polymer PVB (10 wt%) + ethanol Polymer PVB (10 wt%) + ethanol + 20 wt. % dust from teak Polymer PVB (10 wt%) + ethanol + 20 wt. % dust from garapa Polymer PVB (10 wt%) + ethanol + 20 wt. % mixture dust from garapa and teak in the ratio 2:1. The prepared composites PVB garapa, PVB teak, PVB garapa + teak were examined by means of FTIR analysis and their thermal stability and morphology of fibers were determined by TGA, DSC and SEM resp. The composites belong to the category of "green composites" in which reinforcement occurs by biological decomposition of the components. The results have shown an increase of thermal resistance of composites prepared from different kinds of woods in the course of their pyrolysis. Another variant of the composite was prepared by application of wood dust from teak and garapa between layers of nano fibers the sandwich structure. A layer of wood dust was sputtered on a nano fiber layer of polycaprolactone and it was homogenized by ultrasound. Subsequently, the material was covered with another layer of nano fibers to enclose the powder material in the composite. In this case very good sorption properties were demonstrated in respect to oil products on water surface.