Revolutionizing transportation composite structures: Lightweight, sustainable, and multi-scale hybrid design through waste tire-driven graphene, hemp fiber, and bio-based overmoulding

Abstract

The pursuit of lightweight, environmentally friendly composite structures in transportation is crucial for minimizing ecological footprints and promoting energy-efficient manufacturing techniques. This study presents a novel approach by replacing traditional long glass fiber reinforced homopolymer polypropylene (homoPP) compounds with short hemp fiber reinforced homoPP, incorporating graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) derived from recovered carbon black via waste tire pyrolysis, resulting in a remarkable 15% weight reduction. With new compound formulation by adjusting the amounts of compatibilizer and GNP, injection moulding process was integrated with overmoulding process by using bio-based UD prepregs to enhance the adhesion of injected part and interfacial interaction by decreasing the stress concentrations in the structure. This novel hybrid composite design having 40 wt% hemp fiber, 1.0 wt% GNP and 2.7 wt% compatibilizer provided to improve flexural modulus and strength by 169% and 67.9%, respectively, compared to neat homoPP. The overmolding process employed bio-based natural fibers reinforced UD tapes as inserts, leading to an impressive enhancement of 211% in tensile modulus and 93.6% in strength, further surpassing the performance of neat homoPP. This work not only achieves the conversion of conventional composite structures into recyclable, sustainable thermoplastic composites but also introduces multi-scale reinforcements with customizable functionality, demonstrating a significant step forward in the development of environmentally conscious materials and manufacturing methods by adopting Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology regarding the sustainability of the newly developed composites.