Novel treated pine needle fiber reinforced polypropylene composites and their characterization

Abstract

This study evaluates the thermal stability of pine needle fiber reinforced polypropylene composites up to 30 wt% fiber loading, which is one of the important parameters for the processing, and also to investigate the effect of compatiblizer on thermal properties of treated pine needle fiber polypropylene (TPNF/PP) composites. The thermal stability of the composites were determined with TGA, DTG and DSC under identical conditions. The thermal stability of TPNF/PP composites decreased with the increase of TPNF. No significant changes occurred in the melting temperature of PP with the increase in TPNF loading. The chemical composition of treated pine needle fiber was also determined. The effect of 2% and 6% MA-g-PP content in the composites shows the char yield reduction at 525°C compared with composites without MA-g-PP content. DSC analysis shows that as the TPNF loading increases crystallinity reduces. TPNF/PP composite behaves like V-2 category of the UL-94 test. Functional groups present in the TPNF/PP composites were detected by FTIR spectroscopy. © 2010 The Author(s).