Chemical treatment for improving wettability of biofibres into thermoplastic matrices

The use of biofibres as reinforcing agents for composite materials is one of the most promising areas of composite development, but the handicap of their hydrophilic nature has to be resolved to ensure stable composites. This article concerns the effectiveness of chemical modification using fatty acid derivates followed by graft copolymerisation with vinyl monomers to confer hydrophobicity and resistance to enzymatic degradation to biofibres. Oleoyl chloride was used as a fatty acid derivative to modify jute fibres leaving one double bond available for further co-polymerisation with styrene. The chemical modification was applied in swelling and non-swelling solvents and different extents of modification were obtained. The reaction was monitored by FTIR spectroscopy and the extent of modification was calculated from elemental analysis. The copolymerisation reaction was carried out from 2-3 molar% modified jute fibres resulting in highly hydrophobic jute fibres with large resistance to microorganisms. The copolymerisation reaction was also followed by FTIR spectroscopy and covering styrene ratios were deduced from elemental analysis. Additional investigations such as SEM, optical microscopy, enzymatic degradation and floatation techniques were used to support the efficacy of the proposed method.