Cai Zengxiao, Al Faruque Md Abdullah, Kiziltas Alper, Mielewski Deborah, Naebe Maryam
Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3216, Australia.
Research and Innovation Center, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI 48121, USA.
Materials (Basel). 2021 Mar 5;14(5):1241. doi: 10.3390/ma14051241.
Globally, automotive manufacturers are looking for ways to produce environmentally sustainable and recyclable materials for automobiles to meet new regulations and customer desires. To enable the needs for rapid response, this study investigated the feasibility of using waste and virgin wool fibres as cost-effective and sustainable alternatives for automotive sound and heat insulation using a chemical-free approach. Several properties of the currently available commercial automotive insulators were investigated in order to facilitate the designing of green wool-based needle-punched nonwoven materials. The effect of fibre diameter, nonwoven surface, layer structure, thickness, and area density on sound absorption and thermal resistance was investigated. The results suggested that the wool nonwoven materials, fabricated using waste and virgin wool fibres, possessed extremely efficient acoustic and thermal insulating properties comparable with the currently used commercial synthetic insulating materials. Besides, the wool nonwoven materials showed identical antibacterial and antifungal properties with a greater biodegradation rate (50%) than that of the commercial synthetic insulating materials. Hence, this study showed that natural wool fibres have the potential to be used as green, lightweight, and sustainable materials in the automobiles, while they qualify for Reuse-Recycle and Reuse-Recover purposes at the end-of-life of vehicles.
在全球范围内，汽车制造商正在寻找生产环境可持续且可回收汽车材料的方法，以满足新法规和客户需求。为了满足快速响应的需求，本研究调查了使用废羊毛纤维和原生羊毛纤维作为汽车隔音和隔热材料的经济高效且可持续替代品的可行性，采用了无化学方法。研究了目前可用的商用汽车隔热材料的几种性能，以便于设计基于羊毛的绿色针刺无纺布材料。研究了纤维直径、无纺布表面、层结构、厚度和面积密度对吸声和热阻的影响。结果表明，使用废羊毛纤维和原生羊毛纤维制造的羊毛无纺布材料具有与目前使用的商用合成隔热材料相当的极其高效的声学和隔热性能。此外，羊毛无纺布材料具有相同的抗菌和抗真菌性能，其生物降解率（50%）高于商用合成隔热材料。因此，本研究表明，天然羊毛纤维有潜力在汽车中用作绿色、轻质且可持续的材料，同时在车辆报废时符合再利用-回收和再利用-回收的目的。
