Improved properties of corn fiber-reinforced polylactide composites by incorporating silica nanoparticles at interfaces

In this work, we report a novel strategy for improving the interfacial nature in corn fiber/polylactide (CRF/PLA) composites by directly applying a sizing containing silica nanoparticles on the surface of CRFs. This results in enhanced mechanical properties of the CRF/PLA composites. These improvements can be mainly attributed to the presence of silica nanoparticles on CRF-PLA interfaces, which act to resist the crack propagation. The increased surface roughness of CRFs from incorporated silica nanoparticles may also contribute to the enhanced mechanical properties. This simple methodology can be easily scaled up and thus shows great promise in industrial applications.