In this work, three types of agricultural waste: olive stones (OS), date seed (DS) and wheat bran (WB) were applied as potential lignocellulosic fillers in poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) based biocomposites. Differences in composites’ performance were related to the higher content of proteins, noted for WB comparing to other fillers applied, which enhanced plasticization of PCL matrix. The mechanical properties of biocomposites were significantly affected by the agricultural waste fillers. Use of WB caused an obvious, even 25% decrease of tensile strength and hardness, which could be explained on account of glass transition temperature depletion and weaker matrix–filler interfacial interactions. Such phenomenon also increased water uptake of PCL/WB composites by more than 100%, while for PCL/OS and PCL/DS systems only for about 50%. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that all investigated composites can be effectively processed without thermal decomposition. Generally, the outcome of this work demonstrated that OS, DS, and WB could be applied as promising lignocellulosic fillers used in manufacturing of high-performance polymer biocomposites.

中文翻译：

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木质纤维素填料组成与聚（ε-己内酯）基生物复合材料性能特性的相关性

在这项工作中，将三种类型的农业废料：橄榄石（OS），枣子（DS）和麦麸（WB）用作基于聚（ε-己内酯）（PCL）的生物复合材料中潜在的木质纤维素填料。复合材料性能的差异与蛋白质含量较高有关，WB指出，与其他填料相比，WB的蛋白质含量更高，从而增强了PCL基质的增塑作用。农业废弃物填料极大地影响了生物复合材料的机械性能。WB的使用导致拉伸强度和硬度明显降低，甚至降低了25％，这可以解释为玻璃化转变温度降低以及基质与填料之间的相互作用较弱。这种现象还将PCL / WB复合材料的吸水率提高了100％以上，而PCL / OS和PCL / DS系统的吸水率仅提高了约50％。热重分析表明，所有研究的复合材料都可以有效加工而不会发生热分解。通常，这项工作的结果表明，OS，DS和WB可用作有前景的木质纤维素填料，可用于制造高性能聚合物生物复合材料。