Abstract
Anionic polyamide-6 (APA-6) composites are prepared by the VARIM process using different modified ramie fabrics to study the structure and properties of different composites. This study can not only evaluate the optimal modification method for the ramie fabrics, but also further explore the interface interaction mechanism between ramie fabrics and APA-6. In this article, the ramie fabrics are modified by a pretreatment, coupling agent and alkali modification. Different modification methods have different effects on the structure, surface properties and mechanical properties of ramie fabrics, which will further affect the impregnation process, interfacial and mechanical properties of the composites. Through the performance analysis of different modified ramie fabrics reinforced APA-6 composites, the conversion, crystallinity and molecular weight of these composites are at a high level, which indicate that the polymerization of these composites is well controlled. The coupling agent modified ramie fabrics composites and the pretreated ramie fabrics composites have higher flexural modulus, tensile strength and dynamic mechanical properties. Alkali-modified ramie fabrics composites have slightly lower mechanical properties, which however have the highest interlaminar shear strength and outperformed interface properties of the composites.
Highlights
Natural fibers exhibit many excellent properties and are low-density materials, which probably lead to lightweight composites with a high specific strength and modulus
The high melting temperature of the thermoplastic resins would have an adverse impact on natural fiber
Different modification methods have a great influence on the structure, surface properties and mechanical properties of natural fiber fabrics, and these properties of the fabrics will affect the impregnation process, interface properties and final properties of the composites, respectively
Summary
Natural fibers exhibit many excellent properties and are low-density materials, which probably lead to lightweight composites with a high specific strength and modulus. Ramie fibers as one of the high-performance natural fibers [4] were selected and used in this work for the purpose of reinforcement of the resin. Fabric reinforced composites are increasingly used to manufacture the high-performance and lightweight structures in the aerospace and automotive industry [5,6,7]. Thermoplastic resins usually exhibit a high melt viscosity in the range of 100~10,000 Pa·s, which made them much more difficult to impregnate into fiber. According to the previous report, the appropriate viscosity for fabric reinforced composites should normally be lower than 1 Pa·s [8]. The high melting temperature of the thermoplastic resins would have an adverse impact on natural fiber. In order to overcome these problems, a vacuum assisted resin infusion molding (VARIM) [9] was adopted by using a reactive thermoplastic polymer, i.e., anionic polyamide-6
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