Abstract
Natural fibers such as kenaf, hemp, flax, jute, and sisal have become the subject of much research as potential green or eco-friendly reinforcement composites, since they assure the reduction of weight, cost, and CO2 release with less reliance on oil sources. Herein, an inexpensive and eco-friendly waterglass treatment is proposed, allowing the production of silica-coated fibers that can be easily obtained in micro/nano fibrils through a low power mixer. The silica coating has been exploited to improve the chemical compatibility between fibers and the polymer matrix through the reaction of silanol groups with suitable coupling agents. In particular, silica-coated fibers easily functionalized with (3-Aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTS) were used as a filler in the manufacturing of epoxy-based composites. Morphological investigation of the composites through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that the filler has a tendency to produce a web-like structure, formed by continuously interconnected fibrils and microfibrils, from which particularly effective mechanical properties may be obtained. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) shows that the functionalized fibers, in a concentration of 5 wt%, strongly affect the glass transformation temperature (10 °C increase) and the storage modulus of the pristine resin. Taking into account the large number of organosilicon compounds (in particular the alkoxide ones) available on the market, the new process appears to pave the way for the cleaner and cheaper production of biocomposites with different polymeric matrices and well-tailored interfaces.
Highlights
Natural fibers such as kenaf, hemp, flax, jute, and sisal have become the subject of much research as potential green or eco-friendly reinforcement composites, since they assure the reduction of weight, cost, and CO2 release with less reliance on oil sources [1,2,3]
Hemp fabrics were iteratively soaked into acidified waterglass solutions following the procedure described in Section 2.2 of and sketched
Hemp fabrics and wereable iteratively soaked into acidified waterglass solutions following the procedure washing resistant to act as a protective and thermal shield
Summary
Natural fibers such as kenaf, hemp, flax, jute, and sisal have become the subject of much research as potential green or eco-friendly reinforcement composites, since they assure the reduction of weight, cost, and CO2 release with less reliance on oil sources [1,2,3]. Alternative methods can be used to produce products of superior properties, which will hopefully be discovered [3,5] Another severe drawback is the hydrophilic character of cellulose and the formation of a strong network held by hydrogen bonds [3,5,10,11,12]. For this reason, surface modification is necessary to obtain good dispersion and compatibility in non-polar polymer matrices. In this paper it is shown that when effectively prolonging this eco-friendly process, the fabric becomes brittle and produces silica coated hemp fibers with the aid of a low power mixer. Biocomposites with well-tailored interfaces and different polymeric matrices can be obtained through similar cheap, clean production, as described in the current paper, using an appropriate silane coupling agent (e.g., APTS)
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