Formation of novel thermoplastic composites using bicomponent nonwovens as a precursor |
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Authors: | Mehmet?Dasdemir Email author" target="_blank">Benoit?MazeEmail author Nagendra?Anantharamaiah Behnam?Pourdeyhimi |
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Affiliation: | (1) The Nonwovens Institute, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA; |
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Abstract: | This study focuses on a novel technique to produce thermoplastic composites directly from bicomponent nonwovens without using
any resins or binders. Conceptually, the structure of the bicomponent fibers making up these nonwovens already mimics the
fiber–matrix structure of fiber reinforced composites. Using this approach, we successfully produced isotropic thermoplastic
composites with polymer combinations of polyethylene terephthalate/polyethylene (PET/PE), polyamide-6/polyethylene (PA6/PE),
polyamide-6/polypropylene (PA6/PP), and PP/PE. The effects of processing temperature, fiber volume fraction, and thickness
of the preform on the formation and structure of the nonwoven composites were discussed. Processing temperatures of 130 and
165 °C for PE and PP matrices, respectively, resulted in intact composite structures with fewer defects, for fiber volume
fraction values of up to 51%. Moreover, an insight into the changes on the fine structure of the bicomponent fibers after
processing was provided to better explain the mechanics behind the process. It is hypothesized that the composite fabrication
process can result in annealing and increases the degree of crystallinity and melting temperature of polymers by thickening
lamellae and/or removing imperfections. One of the other outcomes of this study is to establish what combination of mechanical
properties (tensile and impact) nonwoven composites can offer. Our results showed that compared to glass mat reinforced thermoplastic
composites, these novel isotropic nonwoven composites offer high specific strength (97 MPa/g cm−3 for PA6/PE), very high strain to failure (152% for PP/PE), and superior impact strength (147 kJ/m2 for PA6/PP) which can be desirable in many critical applications. |
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