Injection molded discontinuous and continuous rattan fiber reinforced polypropylene composite: Development, experimental and analytical investigations

Abstract

Because of the superabundant accessibility and availability of natural fiber, the research field of natural fiber-reinforced composites is becoming an emerging interest in sustainable technology. In this present study, injection molded rattan fiber inreinforced polypropylene composites were prepared, where maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) was used as compatibilizer. The extreme amount of lignin percentage in rattan fiber was the primary motive for fabricating the rattan-based polypropylene composite with MAPP compatibilizer. Three different fiber volume percentages (10, 20 and 30%) were considered for preparing the composites. The mechanical characterizations, such as tensile behavior, flexural behavior, impact strength, hardness, and thermal characterization, such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were investigated. Several thermal properties, such as onset temperature, endset temperature, melting temperature, heat capacity, melting enthalpy, decomposition behavior of these composites were observed from these TGA and DSC curves. As well, the wet absorption characteristics of the composites were examined to investigate hydrophilic behavior. Furthermore, continuous rattan fiber reinforced polypropylene composites with indistinguishable fiber volume percentages and compatibilizer were prepared by partial injection molding technique for comparing the mechanical and wet absorption behaviors and validating elastic modulus by the analytical findings. The tensile strength, flexural strength and impact toughness of discontinuous fiber composites were enhanced up to 23, 25, 153% respectively within the fiber content. The improvement of mechanical properties was higher when polypropylene was reinforced by continuous rattan fiber. Nevertheless, the continuous fiber composites were more hydrophilic than discontinuous fiber composites.