Evaluation of the mechanical properties of sisal–polyester composites as a function of the polyester matrix formulation

Abstract

ABSTRACT:In this work a comparative study on the impact and tensile properties of polyester/sisal fiber reinforced composites was undertaken. The polyester matrix was used bare and modified with: (1) a silane coupling agent; (2) a flame retardant system; and (3) a blend of the silane agent and the flame retardant system. The experimental results show that the flame retardant acts as a particulate reinforcement to the polyester matrix and the silane coupling agent acts as a plasticizer. The simultaneous addition of these two compounds to the polyester resin tended to decrease the performance of the composites. The results obtained show that strength or toughness could be tailored, and although none of the composites manufactured with the modified polyester matrices showed a significant improvement on the fiber-matrix interface strength, a better compromise between impact and tensile properties was obtained with the silane modified matrix. The critical fiber volume fraction was also evaluated and shown to be less than 10% for the sisal-polyester composite investigated here.

Caracterização química e estrutural de fibra de sisal da variedade Agave sisalana

“…Além destas aplicações, a literatura relata diversos estudos sobre a modificação da superfície das fibras com objetivo de sua utilização em materiais compósitos poliméricos de grande interesse para a indústria [1,3,7,8,10,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] . Os compósitos reforçados com fibras de sisal se destacam por apresentarem alta resistência ao impacto, e boas propriedades de resistência à tração e flexão [3,[21][22][23][24] .…”

Composite Materials from Natural Resources: Recent Trends and Future Potentials

“…The high energy to break off surface-treated composites indicates that the matrix is controlling the growth of cracks as fracture proceeds. Work carried out by Fonseca et al, (2004) showed that sisal polyester composites resulted a tensile strength, tensile modulous, impact strength of 7 MPa, 1.7GPa and 328±65 respectively. However, the elongation at break (1.7%) found to be higher than that of the similar polyester sisal composites as reported by Singh et al, (1996).…”

“…A weak fibre-matrix interface was expected for this composite, since no fibre treatment or matrix modification was performed. The weak interface and the low fibre volume fraction employed are held responsible for the low mechanical properties and premature failure of that composite (Fonseca et al, 2004). …”

Formation and properties of polyester/copolyester conjugate fibers prepared by ultra‐high‐speed melt spinning technique

“…When PEG was used as an alcohol comonomer, the copolyester FDY showed a lower reduction ratio compared with the homo polyester FDY, which was due to the structural characteristics of the PEG introduced in the copolymerization. On the other hand, the reduction ratio of the copolyester FDY prepared from TMP, TMA, or IPA was higher than that of the homo polyester FDY [15].…”