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Mechanical, morphological, and thermal properties of injection molded, chemimechanical pulp (CMP)-reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites were investigated as a function of different concentrations of maleic anhydride-grafted PP. It was found that tensile strength and failure strain and the notched impact strength increased progressively with increasing compatibilizer content, whereas the addition of any concentration of compatibilizer did not alter the tensile modulus. Scanning electron microscopy — micrographs of tensile fracture surfaces of composites with 2% compatibilizer indicated very little fiber pullout and many fractured fibers. The thermal stability of pure PP was found to be higher than that of CMP-reinforced PP composites. With addition of compatibilizer, the thermal stability of the composites was slightly increased. The activation energy was determined to describe the energy consumption of the initiation of the thermal degradation process. The activation energy of the composites was found to depend on the dispersion and interfacial adhesion of CMP and PP matrix.

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The interaction between particle size and resin content is one of the most important structural parameters that can influence the accuracy of predictions about wood-composite properties. We developed three kinds of equation (linear, quadratic, and exponential) for each mechanical property of particleboard based on slenderness ratio and resin content at a constant density (0.7g⋅cm -3 ). Results from SHAZAM software (version 9) suggested that the quadratic function was not significant, but the linear and exponential functions were significant. The interaction between particle size and resin content was analyzed by Maple 9 software. The results indicated that an exponential function can better describe the simultaneous effect of slenderness and resin content than a linear equation. Under constant resin content, particles with higher slenderness ratios increased more in modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) than did particles with lower slenderness ratios. Edge withdrawal resistance (SWRe) values did not increase with increasing slenderness ratio.

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