Morphology and mechanical investigation of microcellular injection molded carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene composite foams

Employing microcellular injection molding technology, carbon fiber (CF)/polypropylene (PP) composite foams have been prepared. The influences of injection molding conditions and CF amounts relating to the flexural and impact performances have also been studied. X-ray computed tomography scanning has been used for morphological observation. For the flexural specimens, although the solid skin and foamed core layers can be confirmed significantly, the intermediate layer is indistinct. Moreover, the stretched cells can be confirmed dramatically for the Charpy impact specimens. The cell density increases to 12.0 x 10(3) cell/cm(2) when the nitrogen content is 1%. By contrast, the cell densities decrease with the injection speed and CF content increasing accordingly. Further, the maximum specific flexural modulus and Charpy impact strength of the foams can achieve 14 GPa/(g/cm(3)) and 6.2 kJ/m(2), respectively, at the CF content of 30 wt%. Finally, the microcellular structure with the highest cell density can be confirmed with the nitrogen content of 1 wt%, the injection speed of 50 mm/s and the CF content of 10 wt%. Obviously, the CF contents have shown strong influences on the mechanical behaviors of the CF/PP composite foams compared with nitrogen contents or injection speeds.