Showing papers by "Eduardo Radovanovic published in 2010"

Chemical, morphological and mechanical analysis of sisal fiber-reinforced recycled high-density polyethylene composites

Abstract: Natural fibers are widely used as plastic composite material reinforcements. In this work, composites of post- consumer high-density polyethylene (HDPE) reinforced with sisal fibers were prepared. PE and sisal fibers were chemi- cally modified to improve their compatibilities, try to increase the hydrophobic character of the sisal fiber and hydrophilic character HDPE. Sisal was mercerized with a NaOH solution and acetylated and the PE was oxidized with KMnO4 solu- tion. The chemically modified fibers were characterized by Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and 13 C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy ( 13 C NMR). The composites were prepared by extrusion of modified and unmodified materials containing either 5 or 10 wt% fibers. The morphology of the obtained materials was evaluated by SEM. The fiber chemical modification improves it adhesion with matrix, but not benefit were obtained with HDPE oxida- tion. Flexural and impact tests demonstrated that the composites prepared with modified sisal fibers and unmodified PE present improved mechanical performance compared to pure PE.

Chemical, morphological, and mechanical analysis of rice husk/post-consumer polyethylene composites

Abstract: Composites were obtained from post-consumer high-density polyethylene (PE) reinforced with different concentrations of rice husk. PE and rice husk were chemically modified to improve their compatibility in composite preparation. Rice husk was mercerized with a NaOH solution and acetylated. The chemically modified fibers were characterized by FTIR and 13C NMR spectroscopy. The composites were prepared by extrusion of modified and unmodified materials containing either 5 or 10 wt.% fibers. The morphology of the obtained materials was analyzed by SEM. The chemical modification of the fiber surface was found to improve its adhesion with matrix. Flexural and impact tests demonstrated that PE/rice husk composites present improved mechanical performance comparatively to the pure polymer matrix, on the contrary no benefit is observed in the tensile strength over the pure PE.