understanding the reinforcing mechanisms in kenaf fiberpla and kenaf fiberpp composites a comparative study理解在红麻fiberpla和红麻fiberpp复合材料的强化机制进行比较研究.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Polymer Science Volume 2012, Article ID 679252, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2012/679252 Research Article Understanding the Reinforcing Mechanisms in Kenaf Fiber/PLA and Kenaf Fiber/PP Composites: A Comparative Study Seong Ok Han,1 Mehdi Karevan,2 I. Na Sim,1 Md A. Bhuiyan,2 Young Hun Jang,1 Jonathan Ghaffar,2 and Kyriaki Kalaitzidou2 1 Functional Materials Research Center, Korea Institute of Energy Research, 71-2 Jang-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-343, Republic of Korea 2 G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Kyriaki Kalaitzidou, kyriaki.kalaitzidou@ Received 14 April 2012; Revised 13 July 2012; Accepted 16 July 2012 Academic Editor: Alain Dufresne Copyright © 2012 Seong Ok Han et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This study focused on exploring the feasibility of green composites made from biodegradable and renewable materials as potential alternatives to petroleum polymer composites and understanding the reinforcing mechanisms in composites containing kenaf fibers (KF). KF-reinforced poly(lactide) acid (PLA) composites were made using melt compounding and injection molding, and their properties were compared to that of KF-reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites. The flexural properties and thermo- mechanical behavior were determined as a function of the fiber content, the crystallization of PLA and PP was studied using X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry, and the composites’ morphology was investigated using scanning el