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In this work, the effects of maleic anhydride (MA) content on mechanical properties of chopped carbon fibers (CFs)-reinforced MA-grafted-polypropylene (MAPP) matrix composites. A direct oxyfluorination on CF surfaces was applied to increase the interfacial strength between the CFs and MAPP matrix. The mechanical properties of the CFs/MAPP composites are likely to be different in terms of MA content. Surface characteristics were observed by scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and single fiber contact angle method. The mechanical properties of the composites were also measured by a critical stress intensity factor (K IC ). From the K IC test results, the K IC values were increased to a maximum value of 3.4 MPa with the 0.1 % of MA in the PP, and then decreased with higher MA content.

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Recently, as environmentally clean and sustainable energy sources, high-performance electrochemical energy storage devices, such as secondary batteries and supercapacitors have received great attention [1-3]. In particular, supercapacitors have received huge interest due to the high power density, long-term cycle stability, fast charging/discharging process, safety and low maintenance cost [4], and therefore are widely used for different applications such as consumer electronics, portable devices, electric vehicles, memory backup devices and public transportation etc [5][6][7]. In order to fulfill the growing energy density demands for next generation supercapacitors, a dramatic improvement of energy density (E = (CV 2 )/2) of supercapacitors is still one of the great challenges, which can be generally accomplished by increasing the specific capacitance (C) and operation potential window (V) [8,9]. Accordingly, the development of high-performance pseudo-capacitors and hybrid supercapacitors involves compounding the high surface area carbon materials with transition metal oxides and/or conducting polymers [10][11][12][13][14][15]. However, poor electrical conductivity (mostly due to inferior conductivity of transition metal oxides) and serious charge transfer resistance (R CT ) (due to poor interface contact/ adhesion between active materials and current collectors) have been limited to improve the performance of the supercapacitor electrodes in view of energy density, power density, cycle stability, rate capability and charge/