Effect of surface treatment on flax fiber reinforced natural rubber green composite

Abstract

The present work is an attempt to study the effect of different surface treatments of flax fiber on the mechanical properties of the natural fiber reinforced natural rubber (NR) composites. In this study, flax fiber was chopped to 1, 1.25, and 1.5 cm in length and mixed with NR in two roll mill. The composite of 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% fiber loading was prepared from each fiber length. Tensile analysis showed that a 1.25 cm fiber length composite of volume 40% has higher tensile strength compared to others.Hence, this optimized the fiber length and loading has opted for further study. Flax fiber was treated with NaOH and laccase and reinforced into an NR matrix. Properties like tensile strength, hardness, relative density, water diffusion, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for surface treated and untreated natural fiber-reinforced NR composites have been investigated and compared. The reduction in the hydrophilic characteristics of the NaOH and laccase treated fiber was evident from FTIR analysis and increase in the crystallinity index of the fiber depicted by X-ray diffraction (XRD) results. SEM analysis showed the enhanced interfacial interaction of treated flax fiber NR composite compared to untreated composite due to the removal of non-cellulosic contents in fiber and an increase in the surface roughness after treatments. Further, an increase of 9% and 27.4% in tensile and tear strength was found in NaOH treated flax fiber reinforced NR composite.

A facile strategy for preparing of cross‐linkable natural fibers based on a Schiff base reaction

“…The enhancing effect of dynamic molding on the thermal crosslinking process was further verified through micro‐morphology comparison. According to the morphology, it can be believed that the crystalline region of cellulose was filled into modified amorphous region with favorable thermal deformability, which differed from ordinary natural fibers board and natural fibers composites with polymer 40,41 . The formed biocomposites can be regarded as a bioplastic.…”

Nanosilica incorporated coarse wool-epoxy hybrid biocomposites with improved physico-mechanical properties

“…Three replicas were taken for the test, and the average weight loss was recorded. The weight loss was taken as a measure of biodegradation of the composite (Maran et al, 2014;Samant et al, 2023). To examine the water absorption properties, the composite samples were immersed in distilled water and weighed at regular intervals.…”

Preparation of modified sisal microcrystalline cellulose PHS‐g‐MCC and its application in NR/SiO2 composites

“…Therefore, cellulose needs to be modified before filling the polymer to improve the interfacial bonding between cellulose and the polymer matrix. Several studies have reported the application of cellulose as an effective filler for rubber composites in place of commonly used fillers such as carbon black (CB) and silica 18,19 . Jiang et al 20 modified nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) separated from softwood pulp using the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide to replace a portion of CB and strengthen NR.…”

“…Several studies have reported the application of cellulose as an effective filler for rubber composites in place of commonly used fillers such as carbon black (CB) and silica. 18,19 Jiang et al 20 modified nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) separated from softwood pulp using the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide to replace a portion of CB and strengthen NR. The results showed that the tensile strength, elongation at break, tear strength and wear resistance of the modified composites were significantly improved, although the 300% tensile strength of these composites was lower, and the accumulated heat of dynamic compression fatigue was increased.…”