Nano-enhanced, miscanthus-based hybrid biocomposites for light-weighting automotive applications

该提案旨在设计和工程纳米增强的基于miserus-based生物复合材料。主要目标是开发轻质汽车零部件的聚合物生物复合材料，这是成本性能与滑石粉或玻璃纤维填充的聚合物复合材料，目前用于汽车应用。科学创新在于分散少量（~3-5重量%）纳米颗粒（如纳米粘土和生物碳）沿着芒草在聚合物基质系统中作为混合增强物，以达到适当的机械、热和熔体流动性能。该项目团队包括（i）安大略圭尔夫大学的生物产品发现和开发中心（BDDC），（ii）竞争绿色技术（CGTech），一家位于安大略利明顿的复合化合物公司，和（iii）1797472安大略公司。安大略的利明顿的芒草生产者。芒草将由1797472安大略公司提供给大学的研究小组。聚合物生物复合材料将在BDDC开发，采用一系列含有不同添加剂的配方，以实现所需的物理化学和耐用性能。实验室规模和半工业规模的加工技术将在这一阶段使用。在项目实施过程中，将与CGTech反复沟通，优化材料配方及其可行的工业规模加工，以实现有效的商业化。该项目成功后，预计（i）将在复合和成型行业创造新的就业机会，（ii）将实现芒草的增值，和（iii）通过新开发的基于芒草的复合材料将实现石油衍生产品的消耗的显著减少和（iv）由于汽车部件的轻量化将提高汽车燃料效率。此外，这项研究的成功将使圭尔夫大学和加拿大保持在工业用可持续材料研究的前沿。

This proposal looks to design and engineer the nano-enhanced miscanthus-based biocomposites. The maintarget is to develop light-weight auto parts from polymeric biocomposites, which are cost-performancecompetitive with talc or glass fibre-filled polymer composites, currently used in automotive applications. Thescientific innovation lies in dispersing a small amount (~3-5 wt.%) of nano-particles (e.g. nanoclay andbiocarbon) along with miscanthus as hybrid reinforcement in polymer matrix system to reach appropriatemechanical, thermal and melt flow properties.The project team includes (i) Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre (BDDC) at the University ofGuelph, Ontario, (ii) Competitive Green Technologies (CGTech), a composite compounder in Leamington,Ontario, and (iii) 1797472 Ontario Inc. a producer of miscanthus in Leamington, Ontario. Miscanthus will besupplied by 1797472 Ontario Inc to the research team at the University. The polymeric biocomposites will bedeveloped at the BDDC, employing a range of formulations with different additives to achieve desiredphysicochemical and durable performances. Lab scale and semi-industrial scale processing techniques will beutilized at this stage. During the course of the project, iterative communications with CGTech will take place tooptimize the material formulations and their feasible industrial scale processing for the effectivecommercialization.Upon success of this project, it is expected that (i) new jobs will be created in compounding and moldingindustries, (ii) value-addition will be realized for miscanthus, and (iii) significant reduction in the consumptionof petroleum derived products will be achieved through the newly developed miscanthus based compositematerials and (iv) automotive fuel efficiency will be improved due to light-weighting of automotive parts.Moreover, successful accomplishment in this research would keep University of Guelph, and Canada, at thecutting edge of research in sustainable materials for industrial uses.