Rice straw powder/polylactic acid biocomposites for three-dimensional printing

The research aim of this work was to understand the effects of the soil burial of rice straw on the morphology and properties of 3D-printed rice straw powder (RSP)/polylactic acid (PLA) biocomposites. The rice straw buried in the soil for various days was grounded and sieved into powder at 120 mesh. The RSP was then mixed with PLA at a mass ratio of 15/100 and the mixture was extruded into filament, followed by a fused deposition modeling 3D printing process. The as-prepared products were characterized in terms of morphological, mechanical, thermal, and nonisothermal crystallization properties. The results show that cavities with large holes induced by fused deposition modeling exhibit on the cross section of RSP/PLA biocomposite. The longer the burial duration of rice straw, the more the cavities with large holes could be observed on the surface. Therefore, soil burial of rice straw improved the thermal stability of the biocomposites while depressing their mechanical properties due to the amplification of the cavities. The crystallinity of the biocomposites was maintained at a low level (<9%) before and after the soil burial process.