Mechanical properties of polypropylene composites reinforced with chemically treated abaca

In the present study, abaca was chemically treated with benzene diazonium salt in order to improve in the mechanical properties of the abaca-PP composites. Both raw and treated abaca samples were utilized for the fabrication of the composites. The mechanical properties of the composites prepared from chemically treated abaca are found to increase substantially compared to those of untreated ones. Tensile strengths of the composites of both raw and chemically treated abaca-PP composites showed a decreasing trend with increasing filler content. However, the values for the chemically treated abaca-PP composites at all mixing ratios are found to be higher than that of neat PP. The surface morphologies of the fracture surfaces of the composites were recorded using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM micrographs reveal that interfacial bonding between the treated filler and the matrix has significantly improved, suggesting that better dispersion of the filler into the matrix has occurred upon treatment of abaca. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.