Samples were moulded for flexural, tensile and impact tests according to ASTM D 790M, ASTM D 638 and ASTM D 4508 standards,respectively. All tests were carried out under an ambient condition. Universal MTS system was utilized for the tensile test in the current study. Grip separation was set to 100 mm in length and the crosshead speed was adjusted to 5 mm/min for the tensile test.Samples were further coated by gold for scanning electron microscope(SEM) (JEOL Model JSM-6490) imaging to observe the fracture surface of neat PLA and BC/PLA composites. Flexural moduli in bending and flexural strength of the samples were measured through universal MTS system under an ambient condition. The default radii of the loading nose and supports were 5.0 mm. The crosshead speed of the flexural strength tests was 0.946 mm/min.An instrumented drop weight impact tester (Instron Dynatup) was selected to perform falling weight impact test under an ambient condition to study the impact properties including maximum load (Pmax), crack initiation energy (Em), propagation energy (Ep), total fracture energy (Et) and ductility index (DI). Brinell hardness testing was conducted using 15 kgf load and 1.5875 mm diameter indenter.The loading time was about 10 s according to ASTM E10 Standard
Test Method.