Effect of Glass Fibers on the Mechanical and Thermal Conductivity Properties of PP/Alumina Composites

Abstract

Aluminum oxide (alumina, Al2O3) and polypropylene (PP) have been often used to produce thermal conductive composites. Short Glass fiber (SGF) is generally used to increase the mechanical properties of materials, but decrease the thermal diffusivity because of its low thermal conductivity. In this work, PP/alumina composites with the addition of short glass fiberwere prepared via melt blending method to obtain thermal conductive materials with enhanced mechanical properties. Crystallization behavior, mechanical and thermal properties of composites and the effects of fibers treatment were investigated. In this article, we use two kinds of alumina particles with different sizes to prepare the PP/alumina composites and discuss the influences of SGF on the structure and properties of the composites. The results show that use of alkaline-treated SGF is better than addition of coupling agents in the PP/alumina composites. Optimum treatment time of SGF was observed as 4 h when the temperature was 25 ° C. Thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of PP/alumina/SGF composites increased further when the SGF was treated.