NANOFIBRILLATED CELLULOSE REINFORCED POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITES: INFLUENCE OF SILANE (SI-69) SURFACE MODIFICATION

摘要

Nanocellulose serves as next-generation renewable reinforcement to produce high performance nanocomposites. The present study discusses the effect of silane (Si-69) surface modification on thermal and mechanical properties of nanofibrillated cellulose (CNF) reinforced polypropylene composites. Mechanical, thermal, water absorption and melt flow index of untreated and silane treated CNF with up to 5 wt% reinforced composites were studied against pure polypropylene (PP). The thermal and mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, impact strength and hardness, of silane treated CNF reinforced composites showed a significant improvement, in comparison with the untreated CNF based composites and reference pure PP. However, the addition of both treated and untreated CNF slightly increased water absorption and reduced the processability. The experimental results clearly show the effectiveness of the reinforcement behavior of silane (Si-69) modified CNF in the PP matrix, compared to untreated CNF. The best mechanical and thermal properties were obtained from 3.5 wt% silane surface modified CNF reinforced composite.