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MDPI, Polymers, 2(12), p. 438, 2020

DOI: 10.3390/polym12020438

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Effect of Carbon Nanostructures and Fatty Acid Treatment on the Mechanical and Thermal Performances of Flax/Polypropylene Composites

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Four different strategies for mitigating the highly hydrophilic nature of flax fibers were investigated with a view to increase their compatibility with apolar polypropylene. The effects of two carbon nanostructures (graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs)), of a chemical modification with a fatty acid (stearic acid), and of maleated polypropylene on interfacial adhesion, mechanical properties (tensile and flexural), and thermal stability (TGA) were compared. The best performance was achieved by a synergistic combination of GNPs and maleated polypropylene, which resulted in an increase in tensile strength and modulus of 42.46% and 54.96%, respectively, compared to baseline composites. Stearation proved to be an effective strategy for increasing the compatibility with apolar matrices when performed in an ethanol solution with a 0.4 M concentration. The results demonstrate that an adequate selection of surface modification strategies leads to considerable enhancements in targeted properties.