Characterization and Properties of Alkali Treated Flax

摘要

Flax, a kind of natural fiber, has been widely applied as reinforcing materials for polymer composites because of its superior tensile properties. It normally contains noncellulose portions and other impurities, which could act as stress concentration regions to affect negatively the mechanical properties of composites. In this work, canadian linseed flax (F1) was treated by alkali to remove the noncellulose portions and impurities. The treated F1 was characterized in detail applying SEM, FTIR, TGA and single fiber tensile test for its promising application in composites as natural materials. The proper condition of alkali treatment was explored and determined to be 2% of NaOH for 1h at 80°C. Under this condition, the mechanical property of the fiber was 10% better than that of untreated F1, and the non-cellulose portion removing ratio was more than 25% without hurting fiber structure.