Effect of a novel treatment fiber on mechanical properties, thermal stability and crystallization behaviors of epoxy soybean oil toughened jute fiber/polypropylene composites

In this work, a novel fiber treatment method is introduced in the preparation of epoxy soybean oil (ESO) toughened jute fiber/polypropylene (PP) matrix composites. The jute fibers are pre-treated by r-valerolactone (GVL), and the ESO/jute fiber/PP composites are fabricated by melt blending. The microstructure of the treated fiber, the mechanical properties, thermal stability, and crystallization behaviors of the composites are investigated and discussed in detail. The results show that the surface of GVL treated fiber becomes rough and the aspect ratio increases. It is found by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that the interface between the fiber and matrix debones seriously without the addition of ESO. With increasing the content of ESO, the toughness and thermal stability of the composites are gradually improved. The tensile strength of the composites containing 5% ESO reaches 42.2 MPa. In addition, the impact strength and elongation at break are higher than pure PP and PP/jute composites. Moreover, GVL treated fibers can improve the thermal stability of PP/jute fiber composites. In addition, the crystallinity of PP in the PP composites increases first and then decreases, while the crystallization temperature of the composites decreases. At the same time, the complex viscosity of the composites also increases.