Estimation of the interfacial shears strength,orientation factor and mean equivalent intrinsic tensile strength in old newspaper fiber/polypropylene composites

The present paper investigates the suitability of old newspapers (ONPs) as a source of reinforcing fibers for composite materials. Different percentages of ONP fibers were compounded with polypropylene (PP). A coupling agent was added to the compound to improve the interface between matrix and reinforcing fibers. Tensile test were performed to obtain the mechanical properties of the composite materials. Micromechanics of the fibers were obtained using Hirsch model, Bowyer–Bader methodology and Kelly–Tyson equations. Due to the presence of a percentage of calcium carbonate in the obtained fibers (10%), the computed intrinsic characteristics were addressed as equivalent. The most important results were the mean equivalent intrinsic tensile strength of the ONP fibers, the mean orientation angle and the mean interfacial shear strength. The contributions of the matrix, the subcritical and the supercritical fibers to the tensile strength of the composite material were also computed.     

聚丙烯聚集态结构与力学性能间关系的研究进展

从聚丙烯结晶形态和复相结构（结晶度、晶粒尺寸、无机刚性第二相分布及界面结构等）的角度出发,综述了国内外有关聚丙烯力学性能与材料聚集态结构关系的研究进展。     

Enhancing fiber/matrix bonding in polypropylene fiber reinforced cementitious composites by microbially induced calcite precipitation pre-treatment

In fiber reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC), bonding between the fibers and matrix governs many important properties, including strengths, fracture energy, ductility, and energy absorption capacities. This study explores the application of a microbiological process of microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) to pre-treating surface of polypropylene (PP) fibers for enhancing the interfacial boning strength. This technique utilizes MICP process to produce calcium carbonate that binds onto the fiber surface, leading to increased interfacial bond area and strength. Laboratory tests indicate that MICP modification could increase the post-cracking resistance and energy absorption capacity of the FRCC beam specimens by 58% and 69.3%, respectively. Microstructure analysis reveals that PP fibers after MICP treatment were coated with a layer of CaCO₃ with thickness around 20–50 μm depending on the degree of deposition. Results acknowledged a significant role of MICP pre-treatment in enhancing the fiber-matrix bonding properties of FRCC and the corresponding mechanical performance.     

Soundproofing effect of polypropylene/inorganic particle composites

Two inorganic particle-filled polypropylene (PP) composites including PP/hollow glass bead (HGB) composite and PP/nanometer calcium carbonate (nano-CaCO₃) composite were prepared by means of a twin-screw extruder in the present paper. The transmission loss was measured, to identify the effects of sound frequency and the filler content on the sound insulation properties of these filled systems. The results showed that the sound insulation effect of the PP/nano-CaCO₃ obeyed roughly the law of mass, the transmission loss of the two composites increased nonlinearly with an increase of the filler volume fraction, and the value of the transmission loss for the PP/HGB system was higher than that of the PP/nano-CaCO₃ system under the same level of sound frequency. The transmission loss increased roughly with an increase of sound frequency for the two composites except to individual sound frequency. The mechanisms of the sound insulation of these composites were discussed.     

Fracture resistance improvement of polypropylene by joint action of core-shell particles and nucleating agent

As a serial work about the fracture resistance improvement of polypropylene (PP), this work reports the joint effect of core-shell particles and nucleating agent (NA) on the microstructure and fracture resistance of PP. Core-shell particles were prepared through melt blending of ethylene-octene copolymer (POE) and calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). Different NA, i.e. α-form NA (P-tert-butylbenzoic acid-Al, MD-NA-28) and β-form NA (aryl amides compound, TMB-5) were introduced into PP matrix to control the crystalline structure. The phase morphology of POE and the distribution of CaCO₃ were characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the crystallization behavior of PP matrix were investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and polarization optical microscope (POM). The mechanical properties were obtained through universal tensile measurement and notched Izod impact measurement. Surprisingly, the results show that through addition of so-called core-shell particles and NA simultaneously, the fracture resistance of PP can be dramatically improved.     

Reinforcement of polypropylene with hemp fibres

Noil hemp fibre (NHF) is a kind of textile hemp fibre after deep degumming from scutched hemp fibre (SHF), mechanically-degummed hemp fibre. Both NHF and SHF with strong mechanical properties are good candidates as reinforcing fibres for plastics such as polypropylene (PP). The PP/NHF and PP/SHF composites were blended via internal mixing process. The effect of fibres on the morphology, thermal resistance and reinforcement of the composites were investigated. PP/NHF composites showed higher impact strength, lower flexural strength than PP/SHF at the corresponding loading because NHF has smaller diameter and better thermal resistance than SHF. Meanwhile, NHF has the similar reinforcement to tensile strength with SHF. The effect of maleic anhydride polypropylene (MAPP) on the fibre-resin interface bonding was also comparatively studied. With increasing amount of MAPP, the tensile, flexural and impact strengths of PP/NHF and PP/SHF increased, respectively. The morphology of PP/SHF and PP/NHF results well showed that MAPP improved the interaction of the fibres with PP through chemical adhesion.     

Fabrication of the new structure high toughness PP/HA-PP sandwich nano-composites by rolling process

In this study a designed rolling setup was used to fabricate new structure polypropylene/hydroxyapatite-polypropylene (PP/HA-PP) sandwich nano-composites. To check the effect of rolling process and PP layers content on the structure and mechanical properties of these sandwich composites, different mechanical tests and analysis were performed on these composites. Results of tensile, bending and buckling tests show the rolling process improves the strength, modulus and flexural rigidity of composites significantly while with increasing the PP layers content from 10 vol.% to 20 vol.% decreases the stiffness, flexural rigidity and modulus of composites slightly. Results of impact test demonstrate the rolling process and increasing the volume percentage of the PP layers in sandwich composites cause a dramatic improve in impact absorbed energy of the PP/HA-PP sandwich composites. The results of Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) analysis confirm the rolling process increases the crystallinity and molecular alignment of polypropylene in composites. The results of mechanical tests and DSC analysis show the increasing of polypropylene molecular alignment by rolling process is the most dominant reason of improvement the mechanical properties of sandwich composites.     

Physical and mechanical properties of injection-molded wood powder thermoplastic composites

In the last decades, filler-reinforced thermoplastics especially natural filler-reinforced plastics have been frequently used to improve the physical and thermal properties of polymer materials in plastic industry due to their low density, fully degradable, helpful to reduce the CO₂ emission, free from health hazard and low cost. At current study, wood powder/polypropylene composites (wood/PP) with different filler contents were molded by injection molding process to investigate the effect of filler content on the physical and mechanical properties of the composites. Additionally, the comparison of physical and mechanical properties between talc/PP (which has been widely used in the automotive products) and wood/PP has been carried out based on the tensile, bending, Izod impact tests and the scanning electron microscope observation on the fracture surfaces. Results showed that the highest mechanical property of wood/PP was determined at 30?wt.% wood content. More interesting is that, at the same composite density up to 30?wt.%, the mechanical property of wood/PP was much higher than that of talc/PP. Theoretically, Nielsen equation is often used to predict the elastic modulus of filler reinforced plastics, and in this study, the predicted values were in good agreement with experimental values up to 30?wt.%, after that, they were higher to the experimental values of wood/PP composite. It is considered that is due to the discounted of the distribution and orientation of the filler in the matrix in Nielsen equation.     

Ternary nano-CaCO3/poly(ethylene terephthalate) fiber/polypropylene composites: Increased impact strength and reinforcing mechanism

The binary nano-CaCO₃/polypropylene (PP), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers/PP and ternary nano-CaCO₃/PET fibers/polypropylene composites were prepared by melt blending method, and their structure and mechanical properties were investigated. The results show that the ternary nano-CaCO₃/PET fibers/PP composite displays significantly enhanced mechanical properties compared with the binary PET fibers/PP and nano-CaCO₃/PP composites, and neat PP. The X-ray diffraction, dynamic mechanical analysis, scanning electron microscopy and analysis of the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics were used to investigate the reinforcement mechanism of composites. The results indicate that the interfacial action and compatibility between PET fiber and PP are obviously enhanced by the addition of modified nano-CaCO₃ particles in the ternary composites and the mechanical property enhancement in the ternary system may be mainly originated from the formation of β-form crystallites of PP induced by the synergistic effect between PET fibers and nano-CaCO_3.     

Biocomposites from Musa textilis and polypropylene: Evaluation of flexural properties and impact strength

Abaca (Musa textilis)-reinforced polypropylene composites have been prepared and their flexural mechanical properties studied. Due to their characteristic properties, M. textilis has a great economic importance and its fibers are used for specialty papers. Due to its high price and despite possessing very distinctive mechanical properties, to date abaca fibers had not been tested in fiber-reinforced composites. Analysis of materials prepared showed that, in spite of reduced interface adhesion, flexural properties of the PP composites increased linearly with fiber content up to 50 wt.%. Addition of a maleated polypropylene coupling agent still enhanced the stress transfer from the matrix to the reinforcement fiber. As a result, composites with improved flexural properties were obtained. The mechanical properties of matrix and reinforcing fiber were evaluated and used for modelling both the flexural strength and modulus of its composites. In addition, the impact strength of materials was evaluated. Comparison with mechanical properties of composites reinforced with fiberglass points out the potentiality of abaca-reinforced polypropylene composites as suitable substitutes in applications with low impact strength demands.     

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatumL.) as a reinforcing fibre in polypropylene composites

In this study the switchgrass (Panicum virgatumL.), a biomass crop being developed in North America and Europe, was tested as a stiffening and reinforcing agent in polypropylene (PP) composites with and without maleic anhydride grafted PP (MAPP) as a compatibiliser and to evaluate the effect of pulping and different sources of switchgrass on composite characteristics. The refiner pulping yield for two switchgrass varieties was estimated between 70–80%. The addition of 30% (by weight) switchgrass pulp resulted in an increase of the flexural modulus by a factor of about 2.5 compared to pure polypropylene. Which was only slightly lower than values found for jute and flax. The flexural strength of PP composites reinforced with pulped switchgrass and MAPP was almost doubled compared to pure PP and approached values found for jute and flax. The compatibilising effect of MAPP has been visualised by micrographs. The good mechanical properties are achieved despite the severe fibre length reduction as a result of thermoplastic compounding which is shown by fibre length analysis. The impact strength of switchgrass/PP composites was much lower than for pure PP. The use of different switchgrass varieties and harvesting time had a minor to no effect on the mechanical performance of the respective composites. The chemical composition of different varieties was fairly constant. The low price and the relatively good mechanical characteristics should make switchgrass an attractive fibre for filling and stiffening in thermoplastic composites. Further improvement of composite mechanical properties should be possible.     

PP-g-MAH对PP/SiO2纳米复合材料力学性能的影响

为了进一步提高聚丙烯的力学性能,以马来酸酐接枝聚丙烯(PP-g-MAH)为聚丙烯/二氧化硅(PP/SiO2)纳米复合材料的界面相容剂,研究了PP-g-MAH添加量对PP/SiO2的力学性能、微观形态以及结晶行为的影响,并研究了其增容机理.研究表明:PP-g-MAH的加入使纳米PP/SiO2纳米复合材料的力学性能得以全面提高,使纳米二氧化硅与聚丙烯的界面粘结得到改善,并且,由于PP-g-MAH导致复合材料的界面强度提高和界面层厚度增加,使KH-570与PP-g-MAH并用的PP/PP-g-MAH/纳米SiO2复合材料比单用KH-570的PP/SiO2纳米复合材料的改性效果更加明显;PP-g-MAH对PP的结晶过程具有较明显的成核作用,使改性PP的结晶温度提高.     

Effect of flame retardants on flame retardant,mechanical, and thermal properties of sisal fiber/polypropylene composites

A flame retardant efficiency of flame retardants; ammonium polyphosphate (APP), magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)₂), zinc borate (Zb), and combination of APP with Mg(OH)₂ and Zb in sisal fiber/polypropylene (PP) composites was investigated using a horizontal burning test and a vertical burning test. In addition, maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) was used as a compatibilizer to enhance the compatibility in the system; i.e. PP-fiber and PP-flame retardants. Thermal, mechanical, and morphological properties of the PP composites were also studied. Adding the flame retardants resulted in improved flame retardancy and thermal stability of the PP composites without deterioration of their mechanical properties. APP and combination of APP with Zb effectively enhanced flame retardancy of the PP composites. No synergistic effect was observed when APP was used in combination with Mg(OH)₂. SEM micrographs of PP composites revealed good distribution of flame retardants in PP matrix and good adhesion between sisal fiber and PP matrix.     

Eggshell, a new bio-filler for polypropylene composites

Chicken eggshell (ES) is an industrial byproduct containing 95% calcium carbonate, and its disposal constitutes a serious environmental hazard. Different proportions of chicken eggshell as bio-filler for polypropylene (PP) composite were compared with different particle sizes and proportions of commercial talc and calcium carbonate fillers by tensile test. The Young's modulus (E) was improved with the increment of ES content, and this bio-filler was better than all types of carbonate fillers with different particle sizes used in this study. Although ES composites showed lower E values than talc composites, talc filler could be replaced by up to 75% with ES while maintaining a similar stiffness and E compared to the talc composites. Scanning electron microscopy showed an improved interfacial bonding on the tensile fractured surface. The improvement in the mechanical properties was attributed to a better ES/matrix interface related to the geometric ratio of the ES particles similar to talc particles.     

Characterization and biodegradability of polypropylene composites using agricultural residues and waste fish

The objective of this research was to study the potential of waste agricultural residues such as rice-husk fiber (RHF), bagasse fiber (BF), and waste fish (WF) as reinforcing and biodegradable agents for thermoplastic composites. Addition of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) as coupling agent was performed to promote polymer/fiber interfacial adhesion. Several composites with various polypropylene (PP) as polymer matrix, RHF, BF, WF, and MAPP contents were fabricated by melt compounding in a twin-screw extruder and then by injection molding. The resulting composites were evaluated through mechanical properties in terms of tensile, flexural, elongation at break and Izod notched impact following ASTM procedures. Biodegradability of the composites was measured using soil burial test in order to study the rates of biodegradation of the composites. In general, the addition of RHF and BF promoted an increase in the mechanical properties, except impact strength, compared with the neat PP. According to the results, WF did not have reinforcing effect on the mechanical properties, while it could considerably improve the biodegradation of the composites. It was found that the composites with high content of WF had higher degradation rate. Except impact strength, all mechanical properties were found to enhance with increase in cellulosic fiber loading In addition, mechanical properties and biodegradability of the composites made up using RHF was superior to those of the composites fabricated with BF, due to its morphological (aspect ratio) characteristics.     

微纳米SiO2/PP复合材料增强增韧的实验研究

为了研究无机刚性颗粒对通用塑料聚丙烯 (PP) 的力学性能的影响, 采用熔融共混方法制备了经硅烷偶联剂A-151处理的SiO₂/PP 复合材料, 并通过其缺口冲击、 拉伸、 弯曲试验和冲击断面的形貌观察, 分析研究了微纳米SiO₂颗粒大小、 填充量、 表面改性以及不同颗粒大小SiO₂混合物对PP复合材料增韧、 增强效果的影响。实验结果表明: 纳米SiO₂的加入可以同时改善其韧性、 刚性和强度; 填充量相同, 颗粒越细, SiO₂/PP复合材料的力学性能越好。SiO₂经改性后填充到PP基体中, 明显改善了颗粒在基体中的分散性及基体与颗粒之间界面结合性能, 使复合材料的综合力学性能得到提高。不同颗粒大小的SiO₂混合后填充到PP基体中, 混合SiO₂的协同效应使复合材料拉伸、 弯曲性能进一步提高, 对PP基体具有更好的增强效果, 但其冲击性能下降。      

铝酸酯偶联剂的合成及其对PVC／L－CaCO_3和HP／L－CaCO_3的改性作用

通过异丙醇铝与相应的有机酸反应，合成了４种单核型铝酸酯偶联剂。粘度法测定结果表明，它们对碳酸钙粒子均有很好的表面改性作用。初步试验表明，有３种铝酸酯可明显提高软质ＰＶＣ／Ｌ－ＣａＣＯ_３共混物的力学性能，但４种铝酸酯对ＰＰ／Ｌ－ＣａＣＯ_３共混物的力学性能均无改善，说明铝酸酯的偶联作用不但与它们的分子结构有关，而且和偶联的对象有关。     

生物填料的制备及其对聚丙烯复合材料性能影响的研究

以废弃贻贝壳为原料, 经去除角质层、粉碎、研磨、剪切乳化得到生物填料, 然后对聚丙烯(PP)进行充填. 研究分析了生物填料的物相组成、微观形貌、热稳定性和对其PP充填力学性能的影响. 实验结果表明, 制备的生物填料主要成分为文石碳酸钙, 成片状, 粒径大小约为40~500 nm, 有机物含量约为2.04wt%, 热稳定性良好. 生物填料(YBCC)对PP具有增强效果. 当填充比例为3wt%时, PP/(YBCC)复合材料屈服强度比PP提高了约11.1%; 对PP亦具有异相成核的作用, 可诱导形成?晶. 利用废弃物贻贝壳为原料生产的生物填料填充PP可降低材料成本, 提高力学性能和结晶性能, 具有广阔的应用前景.     

PP/POE/高岭土三元复合材料的力学及热性能

研究了高岭土和乙烯-辛烯共聚物弹性体(POE)填充聚丙烯(PP)制备的PP/POE/高岭土三元复合材料的力学和热力学性能。结果表明,POE和高岭土不能提高PP的拉伸强度,但高岭土可以显著提高PP/POE的杨氏模量。POE降低了PP的弯曲强度和弯曲模量,但PP/POE/高岭土三元复合材料的弯曲强度和弯曲模量显著高于PP/POE和PP。POE和高岭土可以显著提高PP的冲击强度,当高岭土和POE的填充份数分别为10份和5份时,PP/POE/高岭土复合材料的冲击强度最大。高岭土的添加可以提高PP的结晶温度,加快PP的结晶速率,促进PP的异相成核。合适含量的高岭土可以提高PP的熔融温度,改善PP的耐热性能。     

魔芋葡甘聚糖协同碳酸钙增强聚丙烯复合材料的制备

目的 拟在利用天然可降解高分子替代部分聚丙烯(PP)制备一种新型复合材料。方法 采用聚丙烯作为复合材料的基质,向基质中加入魔芋葡甘聚糖(KGM)、碳酸钙(CaCO3),并按照一定比例通过桌面挤出机混溶挤出制粒,再将半成品颗粒利用注塑机注塑成型制备成PP/KGM/CaCO3复合材料,同时探究KGM、CaCO3对PP/KGM/CaCO3复合材料的冲击性能和拉伸性能的影响。结果通过单因素实验可知,当KGM体积分数为10%、CaCO3体积分数为5%时,PP/KGM/CaCO3复合材料的力学性能最优。结论 该复合材料相互融合程度较好,抗冲击和伸强度较高,安全系数较好,可应用于食品包装和生活用品行业领域。本研究可为KGM的资源化利用提供一定的参考依据。