Wood fibre reinforced polypropylene composites: Effect of fibre geometry and coupling agent on physico-mechanical properties

Wood fibre reinforced polypropylene composites at fibre content 50% by weight have been prepared and different types of wood fibres (hard wood fibre, soft wood fibre, long wood fibre and wood chips) were treated with coupling agent (MAH-PP) to increase the interfacial adhesion with the matrix to improve the dispersion of the particles and to decrease the water sorption properties of the final composite. The present study investigated the tensile, flexural, charpy impact and impact properties of wood fibre reinforced polypropylene composites as a function of coupling agent and fibre length and structure. From the results it is observed that wood chips-PP composites showed better tensile and flexural properties comparative with the other wood fibre-PP composites with the addition of 5%MAH-PP, which is around 65% and 50% for tensile strength and flexural strength respectively. Hard wood fibre-PP composites showed better impact characteristic values comparative to other wood fibre-PP composites with the addition of 5%MAH-PP and damping index decreased about to 60%. Charpy impact strength also increased up to 60% with the addition of 5%MAH-PP for long wood fibre-PP composites. Water absorption and scanning electron microscopy of the composites are also investigated.