Effect Of Basalt Fiber On The Properties Of Jute/polypropylene Composites

With the growth of world population, we have to meet the demand of new materials.However, traditional materials could not meet the demand of development, therefore, thedevelopment of new materials is a good choice. Fiber reinforced polypropylene compositesappeared under this background. Glass fiber and carbon fiber were widely used asreinforcement in recent years due to the high mechanical properties of glass fiber and thehigh thermal resistance and strength of carbon fiber. However, glass fiber was harmful tohealth and polluted to environment, carbon fiber was too costly. However, the natural fibersderived from annually renewable resources, advantages of natural fibers over traditionalreinforcing materials are：low cost, low density, high toughness, reduced dermal andrespiratory irritation, good thermal and biodegradability. With increasing environmentalawareness from the general public, there are active research interests on the studies ofnatural fiber composites. However, some drawbacks such as the incompatibility with thepolymer matrices, the tendency to form aggregates during processing and poor resistance tomoisture, greatly reduce the use of natural fibers as reinforcement in polymers. Someresearchers have done a lot of work in order to solve these problems.Jute/polypropylene composites and basalt/jute/polypropylene composites were preparedby melt-blending in this study. Polypropylene grafted with maleic anhydride was used as acompatibilizer in order to produce polypropylene composites with good properties. Theinfluences of basalt fiber and different treatment methods on composites were studied bymechanical testing，water absorption testing, SEM and DSC testing.It was found that there was significantly decrease in tensile strength, impact strengthand elongation of jute/polypropylene composites with rise in fiber loading. The tensilestrength and impact strength were found to increase after the addition of polypropylenegrafted with maleic anhydride, the elongation was found to further decrease. The tensilestrength of composites showed superior value compared to PP, and increased with rise infiber loading. The tensile strength and impact strength were found further increase when treated by the alkali. As the concentration of NaOH reached10%, the value of tensilestrength was maximum. As the concentration of NaOH reached3%, the value of impactstrength was maximum. The tensile strength and impact strength were found to increaseagain after addition of basalt fiber, the elongation was found to decrease.The SEM test results consistent changes with the mechanical properties of composites. Thecomposites of PP/JF showed poor interaction between fibers and polypropylene matrix.Some gaps between PP and the fibers were observed and fiber fracture were not observed. Thecomposites showed better interaction between fibers and polypropylene matrix after addition ofcoupling agent. Fiber surface showed white and rough and the gap between fiber and matrixwere not observed. The fibers were wrapped in polypropylene when treated by NaOH.Basalt fiber and jute fiber surface showed white and rough, and pullout phenomenon werenot observed after addition of basalt fiber.The addition of jute fiber to PP, results in an increase in X_cof the PP matrix. As theamount of the added fiber increases, X_calso was found to increase. But the addition of jutefibers to PP causes only a marginal effect on T_m. X_cand T_m of the PP matrix were improvedby addition of coupling agent. The addition of basalt fiber to PP, results in an decrease in X_cand T_m. As the amount of the added jute fiber increases, water absorption of PP/JFcomposites was found to increase. It was found that there was markedly decrease in waterabsorption of composites after addition of coupling agent and basalt fiber.