SALS study on transcrystallization and fiber orientation in glass fiber/polypropylene composites

This report presents a new technical approach for evaluating the fiber orientation of composites using small-angle light scattering (SALS). Glass fiber (GF)/polypropylene (PP) composites with different fiber orientations were prepared by drawing compression-molded specimens. The drawn samples were remelted and then annealed at 150 °C in order to induce a crystalline structure on the fiber surface, and then underwent SALS analysis. The samples showed a combination of circular and streak patterns. The model calculations demonstrated that the number of nuclei on the fiber surface and the thickness of the transcrystalline layer affected the sharpness and intensity of the streak pattern. In addition, the azimuthal angle of the streak pattern was found to be dependent on the direction of the transcrystalline layer, which correlated with the fiber direction. This correlation suggests that the fiber orientation in the composites can be easily evaluated using SALS.