scholarly journals Increasing the Impact Toughness of Cellulose Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene Composites—Influence of Different Impact Modifiers and Production Scales

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Matthias Mihalic ◽  
Lukas Sobczak ◽  
Claudia Pretschuh ◽  
Christoph Unterweger

While cellulose fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites typically offer good stiffness and strength in combination with ecological benefits and a high potential for lightweight construction, they often require measures taken to improve their impact performance. In this work, the influence of different types of impact modifier on the mechanical performance of a PP–cellulose composite was systematically investigated, with a particular focus on the improvement of the notched impact strength and the accompanying loss of stiffness. Among the tested impact modifiers, ethylene-octene copolymers appeared to be the most suitable class to achieve a good overall performance. A high modifier viscosity increased its potential to improve the notched impact strength of the composite. Additionally, composite production on a larger scale improved the impact performance without significantly affecting the tensile properties. Several composites from this study surpassed the overall mechanical performance of a benchmark commercial PP–cellulose composite. While the impact strength of commercial high-impact PP–talc composites could not be reached, the considerably lower density of the PP–cellulose composites is worth mentioning.

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Graupner ◽  
Jörg Müssig

The present study focuses on a comparison between different cellulose fiber-reinforced thermoplastics. Composites were produced with 30 mass-% lyocell fibers and a PLA or PP matrix with either an injection (IM) or compression molding (CM) process. Significant reinforcement effects were achieved for tensile strength, Young’s modulus, and Shore D hardness by using lyocell as reinforcing fiber. These values are significantly higher for PLA and its composites compared to PP and PP-based composites. Investigations of the fiber/matrix adhesion show a better bonding for lyocell in PLA compared to PP, resulting in a more effective load transfer from the matrix to the fiber. However, PLA is brittle while PP shows a ductile stress-strain behavior. The impact strength of PLA was drastically improved by adding lyocell while the impact strength of PP decreased. CM and IM composites do not show significant differences in fiber orientation. Despite a better compaction of IM composites, higher tensile strength values were achieved for CM samples due to a higher fiber length.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hernández-Díaz ◽  
Ricardo Villar-Ribera ◽  
Francesc X. Espinach ◽  
Fernando Julián ◽  
Vicente Hernández-Abad ◽  
...  

Natural fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites can be an alternative to mineral fiber-based composites, especially when economic and environment concerns are included under the material selection criteria. In recent years, the literature has shown how lignocellulosic fiber-reinforced composites can be used for a variety of applications. Nonetheless, the impact strength and the water uptake behavior of such materials have been seen as drawbacks. In this work, the impact strength and the water uptake of composites made of polypropylene reinforced with fibers from recycled newspaper have been researched. The results show how the impact strength decreases with the percentage of reinforcement in a similar manner to that of glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites as a result of adding a fragile phase to the material. It was found that the water uptake increased with the increasing percentages of lignocellulosic fibers due to the hydrophilic nature of such reinforcements. The diffusion behavior was found to be Fickian. A maleic anhydride was added as a coupling agent in order to increase the strength of the interface between the matrix and the reinforcements. It was found that the presence of such a coupling agent increased the impact strength of the composites and decreased the water uptake. Impact strengths of 21.3 kJ/m3 were obtained for a coupled composite with 30 wt % reinforcement contents, which is a value higher than that obtained for glass fiber-based materials. The obtained composites reinforced with recycled fibers showed competitive impact strength and water uptake behaviors in comparison with materials reinforced with raw lignocellulosic fibers. The article increases the knowledge on newspaper fiber-reinforced polyolefin composite properties, showing the competitiveness of waste-based materials.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1124
Author(s):  
Zhifang Liang ◽  
Hongwu Wu ◽  
Ruipu Liu ◽  
Caiquan Wu

Green biodegradable plastics have come into focus as an alternative to restricted plastic products. In this paper, continuous long sisal fiber (SF)/polylactic acid (PLA) premixes were prepared by an extrusion-rolling blending process, and then unidirectional continuous long sisal fiber-reinforced PLA composites (LSFCs) were prepared by compression molding to explore the effect of long fiber on the mechanical properties of sisal fiber-reinforced composites. As a comparison, random short sisal fiber-reinforced PLA composites (SSFCs) were prepared by open milling and molding. The experimental results show that continuous long sisal fiber/PLA premixes could be successfully obtained from this pre-blending process. It was found that the presence of long sisal fibers could greatly improve the tensile strength of LSFC material along the fiber extension direction and slightly increase its tensile elongation. Continuous long fibers in LSFCs could greatly participate in supporting the load applied to the composite material. However, when comparing the mechanical properties of the two composite materials, the poor compatibility between the fiber and the matrix made fiber’s reinforcement effect not well reflected in SSFCs. Similarly, the flexural performance and impact performance of LSFCs had been improved considerably versus SSFCs.


1994 ◽  
Vol 370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vahan Agopyan ◽  
Holmer Savastano

AbstractThe characteristics of fibres and paste of ordinary Portland cement transition zone are analysed and correlated to the mechanical properties of the produced composites. The water-cement ratio of the matrix varies from 0.30 to 0.46 and the age of the specimens varies from 7 to 180 days. Composites of vegetable fibres (coir, sisal and malva) are compared with those of chrysotile asbestos and polypropylene fibres. The analysis is made by backscattered electron image (BSEI) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Mechanical tests evaluate the composite tensile strength and ductility.Mainly for vegetable fibre composites the transition zone is porous, cracked and rich in calcium hydroxide macrocrystals. These results are directly associated with the fibre-matrix bonding and with the composite mechanical performance. Further studies considering the impact performance of the composites compare the porosity of the transition zone with the toughness of the composites.


2016 ◽  
Vol 850 ◽  
pp. 91-95
Author(s):  
Yan Cao ◽  
Wei Hong Wang ◽  
Hai Long Xu ◽  
Qing Wen Wang

In order to optimize the size of wood fiber reinforced polymer, and extend the application field of wood fiber reinforced polymer composites and improve the safety of their use, four size of wood fiber reinforced high-density polyethylene (HDPE) composites were prepared by forming mat-compression molding. The four kinds of fibers of different size include 80-120 mesh, 40-80 mesh, 20-40 mesh and 10-20 mesh fibers. The flexural performance, impact resistance performance and 24 hours creep - 24 hours recovery of the composites are studied. Fiber of 20-40 mesh presents the best flexural and impact resistance performance. The flexural strength, the elastic modulus and the impact strength reach 26.71MPa, 2.73Gpa and 6.88 KJ/m2 respectively. The impact performance of wood fiber/HDPE composites do not change a lot, while the fiber size increases from 10 to 80 mesh. However, the composites containing 80-120 mesh fibers has minimum impact performance. The creep performance of the wood fiber/HDPE composites with 80-120 mesh is the worst. After 24h creep test, the strain of the other three groups is almost the same. Creep recovery of the composites reinforced with 40-80 mesh fiber is the worst (61.74%). The creep recovery of the other three is above seven percent. Therefore, excessively large or small fiber size proves to be negative to improve the mechanical and creep performance, and polymer composites reinforced by them are not suitable for work under long-term load.


2008 ◽  
Vol 41-42 ◽  
pp. 313-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Ping He ◽  
Yong Tian ◽  
Lu Lin Wang

Natural fiber reinforced polypropylene composites (NF/PP) have attracted a lot of attention because of their light weight, good mechanical properties, recyclable and environmental friendly features. This work has successfully fabricated ramie fiber reinforced polypropylene composites (RF/PP) with a hybrid method of melt-blending and injection molding. Different RF/PP eco-materials have been fabricated by varying the fiber length, fiber content and way of fiber pre-treatment. This paper studied the mechanical properties of the fabricated RF/PP composites in depth by investigating the mechanical behaviors of RF/PP and microstructures of the ruptured surfaces. The results show that the increases of fiber length and fiber content can improve the tensile strength, flexural strength and compression strength apparently, but result in negative influences on the impact strength and elongation behaviors of RF/PP composites. The optimal addition amount of ramie fiber is around 20 wt%. The pre-treatment of ramie fiber in 10%~15% NaOH is good to the mechanical properties of RF/PP. The fiber length can be varied in the range of 3-8 mm. It is expected that the fabricated RF/PP composites can be applied to automobile industry as environmental friendly eco-materials.


Fibers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Roman Fediuk ◽  
Mugahed Amran ◽  
Sergey Klyuev ◽  
Aleksandr Klyuev

The use of fiber in cement materials is a promising and effective replacement for bar reinforcement. A wide range of fiber-reinforced concretes based on composite binders with increased impact strength characteristics have been developed. The synthesized composites included the composite binder made of Portland cement, silica, and carbonate additives. Basalt and steel were used as fibers. The nature of the influence of the composition and manufacturing technology of cement composites on the dynamic hardening coefficient has been established, while the growth of these indicators is achieved by creating a denser interfacial transition zone between the cement paste, aggregate, and fiber as a result of improving the homogeneity of the concrete mixture and controlling the consistency. Workability indicators (slump flow up to 730 mm; spreading time up to a diameter of 50 cm is up to 3 s) allow them to be classified as self-compacting concrete mixtures. An increase in the values of the impact strength coefficient by a factor of 5.5, the dynamic hardening coefficient by almost 70% as a result of interfacial interaction between fibers and binder matrix in the concrete composite, as well as absorption of impact energy by fiber, was revealed. The formula describing the effect of the loading rate on the coefficient of dynamic hardening of fiber-reinforced concrete has been refined. The fracture processes of the obtained materials have been established: after the initiation of primary cracks, the structure of the composite absorbs impact energy for a long time, while in the inelastic range (the onset of cracking and peak loads), a large number of secondary cracks appear.


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