Effect of combination forms of bamboo fiber on properties of bamboo fiber/polypropylene composites

The single bamboo fiber-bamboo fiber sheath/polypropylene (SBF-BFS/PP) composites, in which PP as substrate and SBF along with BFS as two kinds of reinforcements, were fabricated by non-woven airflow paving-moulding process. To investigate the contents of two kinds of bamboo fiber on the comprehensive properties of SBF-BFS/PP composites, the mechanical properties, microstructure and thermal properties of the SBF-BFS/PP composites were characterized by mechanical testing machine, SEM, TGA and DSC. The results show that the impact strength and elastic modulus of the SBF-BFS/PP composites increase gradually with increasing the contents of the SBF in the two forms of bamboo fibers under the contents of PP fiber keeping constant. Compared with the SBF-BFS/PP composite containing 10wt% SBF in SBF-BFS, the impact strength and elastic modulus of the SBF-BFS/PP composite with 90wt% SBF in SBF-BFS increases by 26.46% and 38.39%, respectively. SEM results show that the interfacial compatibility between bamboo fiber and PP matrix is poor, and the bamboo fiber is broken and pulled out. TGA results show that the thermal resistance of SBF-BFS/PP composites exhibit no obvious changes. The water resistance of SBF-BFS/PP composites show that, due to the large specific surface area of SBF, the water absorbent components in the SBF-BFS/PP composites increase with the increase of SBF content, leading to the decline of the water resistance of the SBF-BFS/PP composites. © 2019, Editorial Office of Acta Materiae Compositae Sinica. All right reserved.