Effect of chemical treatments on properties of injection molded Nypa fruticans fiber reinforced polypropylene composite

Abstract

The rise in environmental awareness prompted consideration of environment friendly materials. Natural fiber, on the contrary, has a structure that allows it to absorb moisture attributable to its hydrophilicity, which hinders its wide application and leads to poor interfacial bonding with the polymer matrix. Therefore, fiber surface modification is inevitable, which is usually based on using the functional group of some chemicals to replace the hydrophilic hydroxyl group to make it more moisture resistant and ameliorate the boding between fiber and polymer matrix. In this study, injection molded nypa fiber reinforced polypropylene composites were fabricated. Three different chemical modification i.e., mercerization, H2O2 treatment, maleic anhydride polypropylene (MAPP) compatibilizer, were employed. Other parameters on which the properties of the composite depend, i.e., fiber volume (30%), manufacturing process, etc. were kept the same. Field emission scanning electron microscopic (FE-SEM) images were also investigated to verify the result of experiments. Moisture resistance of the composite was also evaluated. The tensile and flexural properties of treated composite were significantly enhanced than the untreated one. The maximum strength was obtained for MAPP treated composite. The chemical treatment has a less impact on the impact strength of the composite. Better moisture resistance was observed for treated fiber composites. This study provides the insight of using chemical treatment for better adhesion between the fiber and the polymer.