Development of sustainable plasticwood from LDPE reinforced with upcycling <i>Eichhornia crassipes</i> agro-fibers and natural rosin acids: mechanical, anti-flammability, and antibacterial properties

Fabricating highly durable, lightweight, toxicity-free, waterproof, antimicrobial, and flame-resistant biocomposite-based plant fibers has become a very promising way to achieve sustainability, enabling the use of these materials in a vast range of applications. Thus, this manuscript aimed to develop sustainable composites based on the incorporation of natural Nile rose fibers (NRFs) (named Eichhornia crassipes) inside low-density polyethylene (LDPE), facilitated by antimicrobial natural gum rosin acids (R) as a coupling agent to be used as plastic-wood biocomposites (PWBCs). A series of characterizations and measurements was conducted for LDPE biocomposites (LDPE/R-NRFs), including mechanical, morphology, hydrophobicity assessed by thickness swelling, flammability evaluated by the needle flame method, and antibacterial properties. The findings from mechanical testing illustrated that the tensile stress for LDPE/R-NRFs 20% jumped to 29.80 MPa compared to neat LDPE (20.60 MPa), whereas it dropped to 18.30 MPa at high NRFs fiber quantity (40 wt.%). This outcome was confirmed by SEM observations. The final impact on flammability and antibacterial properties was verified, and their data exhibited that superior flame-resistant and antibacterial activity achieved; the flammability for LDPE/R-NRFs 40% was delayed, with no smoke emission during the experiment time (120 s), while the halos of inhibition were obviously observed for all biocomposites with variable diameters ranging from 23 to 33 mm.