Multifunctional green composites based on plasma-activated and GO-coated dwarf palm fibers

Abstract

In this work, we propose a green method for decorating natural fibers derived from dwarf palm waste with graphene oxide (GO) sheets. In detail, plasma-treatment was used to activate fiber surface for the subsequent GO-coating, which was performed in water. Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT)-based composites incorporating 50 % of either raw, plasma-modified or hybrid fibers were prepared by compression moulding and thoroughly analysed to investigate the processing-structure-properties relationships of these systems. The outcomes reveal that combining plasma treatment and GO coating enables fabricating green composites with significantly improved mechanical performance (stiffness and tensile strength increments of up to 500 % and 300 %, respectively) and electrical conductivity on the order of 10(-6) S/m.