Influence of the hybrid effect on the mechanical properties of pulp molds

Recently, pulp mold material has emerged as an eco-friendly substitute for plastic due to its natural and recyclable properties. To investigate hybrid effect on pulp mold materials, wood, sugarcane and hybrid pulp (wood: sugarcane=1:1) were used to make boxes. The results of mechanical tests revealed that tensile index, stiffness, bursting index, and static compressive ultimate load of hybrid pulp mold materials are better than those of wood or sugarcane pulp mold materials. It was speculated that the failure mode observed in wood and sugarcane pulp mold boxes was delamination caused by interfacial instability. The eigenvalues, loads, and stresses corresponding to each buckling mode were obtained via buckling simulation analysis. To verify the hybrid mechanism, scanning electron microscope was exploited to distinguish the morphological differences of different fibers. Ultimately, a novel hybrid reinforcement mechanism in pulp mold material was proposed that hybrid effect reinforced the stability of the interface, which impacted the mechanical properties of hybrid pulp mold materials. This study advances the exploration of hybrid effect of interfaces, and the mechanism of interfacial instability and reinforcement can be implied to other pulp mold products.