Interest in noise control has been growing in recent years and efforts are under way to improve the acoustic performance of existing sound absorbers and also to replace the non-recyclable ones with environmentally friendly materials. Present study describes the research on fabrication, improvement of acoustic absorption and enhancement of mechanical strength of bio-based open-cell foams. Through this study, highly porous open-cell Polylactide (PLA) foams were fabricated by a new fabrication method combining particulate leaching technique and compression molding.
Foamed structures were fabricated with PLA and Polyethylene glycol (PEG) with salt as the particulate. Pore size of the foam was controlled by salt particulates and higher interconnectivity was achieved by the co-continuous blending morphology of PLA matrix with water-soluble PEG. As a result of novel secondary porous structure, acoustic performance of PLA foams was successfully improved.
One issue with application of bio-based open-cell foams is the weak structure. To improve mechanical characteristics of PLA foams, different polymer composites of PLA and Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) were foamed and characterized in terms of acoustic performance, mechanical properties and foam morphology.
Polymers used in this study are bio-based which is of great importance considering huge amount of foams used as acoustic absorbers in various industries.
