Chemical Modifications on Linen for Unsaturated Polyester Composites

Linen was chemically modified by oleoyl chloride(OC) and stearoyl chloride(SC) to graft fatty moieties onto fiber via ester connections. Pyridine was used as solvent. The reaction was simplified by reacting the compounds in air at 60 degrees C for 6 h. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) and thermal gravimetric analysis were conducted to characterize the treated fiber. The FTIR result confirms that the fatty portions have been successfully grafted onto the fiber after the chemical modification. The thermal stability of the SC-modified linen(SCL) was similar to that of the flax modified by oleoyl chloride(OCL). SCL and OCL demonstrated a temperature of 5% mass loss, which was above 200 degrees C and could meet the requirements of the processing conditions for most composites. Thereafter, the SCL-reinforced unsaturated polyester(UPE) composites were prepared and characterized. The composite presented a much better impact strength of 61.1 J/m and tensile modulus of 1.69 GPa than those of UPE with applicable thermal stability. SCL has been shown to be a promising choice as reinforcing material for composites.