| Summary: | 碩士 === 朝陽科技大學 === 應用化學系碩士班 === 97 === This study adopts the compounding method using a Banbury Mixer to blend polypropylene (PP), methylacetylene-propadiene (MaPP) and natural fibers (bamboo) to obtain the natural fiber-reinforced green PP composites.
First of all, the bamboo chopsticks were treated with alkali to remove the surface pectin, hemicellulose and other impurities, and then treated by coupling agent to change its nature chemically. Subsequently, PP was blended with different proportions of these chemically-treated fibers and non-treated fibers, to form the plant fiber-reinforced composites. The materials were then investigated for their morphology (dispersibility and compatibility), mechanical (tensile strength, bending endurance and impact strength) and heat distortion temperature (HDT) properties.
An observation under the electronic scanning microscope discovered that among the polymer materials, the fibers modified by coupling agent exhibited better compatibility with polymer matrix than the non-treated fibers. Moreover the heat resistant property of polymer materials also improved after the addition of plant fibers. The HDT test showed that the HDT of pure PP was 80°C. However, after adding 60phr of bamboo fibers, its HDT reached up to 144.8°C with an increase of approximately 81%. In addition, a test with the universal tester has indicates that the addition of natural fibers was capable of increasing the mechanical property of PP. The tensile strength of pristine PP was 31.52Mpa, Whereas the composite material comprising 40phr of bamboo fibers would exhibit strength up to 51.89Mpa with an increase of approximately 66%. With regard to bending endurance, the bending endurance of pristine PP was 45.58Mpa, whereas when the composite material comprising 60phr bamboo fibers would exhibit bending endurance up to 73.9Mpa with an increase of approximately 62.1%. Moreover, the impact strength of pristine PP was 24.5J/m, whereas the composite material comprising 40phr bamboo fibers would exhibit impact strength up to 48.3J/m with an increase of approximately of 97.1%.
In general, the addition of plant fibers not only would lower the costs of the materials, but also reduce the consumption of petrochemical plastics that would cause pollution. Moreover, it is also capable of enhancing agricultural development and cutting down agricultural wastes that would damage the environment.
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