Feather fiber reinforced light-weight composites with good acoustic properties

Shah Huda, Yiqi Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

106 Scopus citations

Abstract

Three to four billion pounds of chicken feathers are wasted in the United States annually. These feathers pose an environmental challenge. In order to find a commercial application of these otherwise wasted feathers, composites have been prepared from feathers. Flexural, impact resistance, and sound dampening properties of composites from chicken feather fiber (FF) and High Density Polyethylene/Polypropylene (HDPE/PP) fiber have been investigated and compared with pulverized chicken quill-HDPE/PP, and jute-HDPE/PP composites. Sound dampening by FF composites was 125% higher than jute and similar to quill although mechanical properties were inferior to the latter two. In ground form, FF and jute composite properties were similar except for 34% higher modulus of jute; under the same formulation and processing conditions, ground FF composites had nearly 50% lower mechanical properties compared with ground quill composites. It was found that voids and density of composites have effect on mechanical and sound dampening properties; however, no direct relationship was found between mechanical properties and sound dampening.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)131-142
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Polymers and the Environment
Volume17
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2009

Keywords

  • Acoustic composites
  • Biofibers
  • Composites
  • Feather fiber
  • Poultry feather

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Polymers and Plastics
  • Materials Chemistry

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