MORPHOLOGICAL AND MECHANICAL STUDIES OF POLYHYDROXYBUTYRATE COMPOSITES REINFORCED WITH FLAX-g-POLY(MA), FLAX-g-POLY(MA-co-AAc), and FLAX-g-POLY(MA-co-VA)

摘要

The present paper deals with the microwave radiation-assisted graft copolymerization of methyl acrylate and its binary monomer mixture with acrylic acid and vinyl acetate onto flax fibers in the presence of Fenton's reagent as redox initiator. Maximum grafting has been observed at 3.31 ×10~(-3) mollliter of methyl acrylate, 1:2 molar ratio of FAS-H2O2, (Fenton's reagent) 40 min reaction time, and 8.0 pH of reaction medium. In the case of binary vinyl monomer mixture of MA + AAc and MA + VA, maximum grafting has been observed at 2.91 ×10~(-3) mollliter of AAc and 2.16 ×10~(-3) mollliter of VA, respectively. In order to know the evidence of grafting, morphology, thermal stability and crystallinity, synthesized flax graft copolymers were characterized with FTIR, SEM, TGA, and XRD techniques. Polyhydroxybutyrate composites were manufactured using flax graft copolymers as reinforcing material and further subjected to morphological and mechanical studies. It has been found that grafting of flax fibers with vinyl monomers results in enhanced mechanical properties of polyhydroxybutyrate composites due to better binding between the fibers and matrix.