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The effect of fibre surface treatment and coupling agents to improve the performance of natural fibres in PLA composites

  • Aruan Efendy Mohd Ghazali EMAIL logo and Kim L. Pickering
Published/Copyright: October 7, 2021
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Journal of Polymer Engineering
From the journal Journal of Polymer Engineering Volume 41 Issue 10

Abstract

This paper describes work carried out to assess the effect of fibre treatments and coupling agent on the mechanical performance of PLA composites reinforced with 20 wt% fibre. The chemically-treated harakeke and hemp fibres used to produce fibre mats. Maleic anhydride (MA) grafted PLA (MA-g-PLA) was used as a coupling agent. Composites with fibre treated with silane and dicumyl peroxide (DCP) and composites using MA-g-PLA were characterised by swelling testing, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), tensile testing, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). It was found that the interfacial bonding for composites with fibres treated using silane and peroxide and composites coupled with MA-g-PLA noticeably improved supported by lower swelling indices, higher tensile strengths and lower tan δ compared to those composites with fibres treated using alkali only, with the highest tensile strength of about 11% higher obtained from composites treated with MA-g-PLA followed by silane and then peroxide. However, using silane, peroxide and MA-g-PLA as additional composite treatments increased significantly the composite failure strain by up 11, 19 and 30%, respectively for harakeke composites and by 13, 24 and 30%, respectively for hemp composites.

Keywords: aligned fibre; chemical treatment; coupling agent; natural fibre composite
Corresponding author: Aruan Efendy Mohd Ghazali, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia, E-mail:

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. However, the author would like to thank to the Composites Research Group, University of Waikato for their support and the Ministry of Higher Education and Universiti Teknologi Mara Malaysia for the scholarship.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

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Received: 2021-04-16
Accepted: 2021-08-16
Published Online: 2021-10-07
Published in Print: 2021-11-25

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Material properties
  3. The effects of ZnO nanoparticle reinforcement on thermostability, mechanical, and optical properties of the biodegradable PBAT film
  4. The effect of fibre surface treatment and coupling agents to improve the performance of natural fibres in PLA composites
  5. Effects of infill pattern and density on wear performance of FDM-printed acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene parts
  6. Preparation and assembly
  7. Study on the thermal insulation performance of the core–shell skeleton graphene oxide/carbon composite aerogel
  8. Engineering and processing
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https://doi.org/10.1515/polyeng-2021-0120
Keywords for this article
aligned fibre; chemical treatment; coupling agent; natural fibre composite

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Material properties
  3. The effects of ZnO nanoparticle reinforcement on thermostability, mechanical, and optical properties of the biodegradable PBAT film
  4. The effect of fibre surface treatment and coupling agents to improve the performance of natural fibres in PLA composites
  5. Effects of infill pattern and density on wear performance of FDM-printed acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene parts
  6. Preparation and assembly
  7. Study on the thermal insulation performance of the core–shell skeleton graphene oxide/carbon composite aerogel
  8. Engineering and processing
  9. Design criteria for the pin-foot ratio for joining adhesion-incompatible polymers using pin-like structures in vibration welding process
  10. Numerical investigation of tubular expansion and swelling elastomers in oil wells
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