Effect of woody biomass surface free energy on the mechanical properties and interface of wood/polypropylene composites

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of surface free energy of wood flour (WF) and silanized WF on the mechanical properties and interface of wood/polypropylene (PP) composites. The contact angles of three probe liquids against unmodified and modified spruce WF were tested by capillary rise method based on the Washburn equation. Then the surface free energy and its corresponding dispersion and polar components were calculated according to the method developed by Owens–Wendt–Kaelble. The tensile strength and flexural strength of the wood/PP composite samples made with unmodified and modified WF were tested and the flexural fracture surfaces were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the surface free energy of WF increased from 26.0 to 36.1 mJ/m2, which was higher than that of PP (29.4 mJ/m2), and its corresponding polar component decreased from 13.1 to 4.4 mJ/m2, and the dispersion component increased from 12.9 to 31.7 mJ/m2 after the modification with 4 wt.% vinyltriethoxy silane, which makes it possible for spreading of PP on the surface of WF, the tensile strength and flexural strength of wood/PP composites made with modified WF were obviously improved. In addition, the improved compatibility between WF and PP was well confirmed by SEM.