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Abstract
Milled waste feathers and chopped kenaf short fibers were used as the matrix resin and reinforcements, respectively, and the production of totally bio-based composites was attempted via hot-press compression molding, changing the fiber content and/or fiber length of the kenaf fibers to optimize the properties. The tensile strength of the composites increased with increasing the fiber content at first. However, the increase of the tensile strength of the composites leveled off and then decreased over the fiber content of 30 wt% due to the occurrence of insufficient filling of the matrix feather resin around the fibers which, we suggest, was due to the low fluidity of the feathers during the molding. However, the thermal stability could be enhanced when the fiber content was set at over 50 wt%. The increase of the loss modulus, E″, of the composites in the temperature range above the softening temperature of the feather resin was greatly suppressed, and E″ became almost unchanged, even at 200 °C, when the fiber content was set at 60 wt%.