الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Several natural fiber wastes have been used as reinforcement in plastic composites, compared to inorganic fillers. The main advantages of these fibers are their low cost, low density, high specific strength, and renewable nature. The problem encountered during the formulation of thermoplastic-natural fiber composites is the poor adhesion, which results from less chemical affinity between hydrophilic natural fiber and hydropholic thermo-plastic. The only way to overcome this drawback is to select a compatibilizer which can react with both fiber and polymer.
In this work, recycled high density polyethylene (R-HDPE) / sugarcane bagasse fiber composites were prepared by two-roll mill. Three levels of fiber loading (10, 20 and 30 wt %) and three levels of compatibilizer maleated polyethylene (MAPE) content (1.5, 3 and 4.5 wt %) were used. The effects of the bagasse fibers and maleated polyethylene (MAPE) concentration on the composite properties were studied. Tensile testing, impact strength, water absorption, specific gravity, thermo- gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements were applied.
The tensile and impact strength of the composites decreased as the fiber loading increased, the addition of bagasse fiber increases the tensile modulus, specific gravity and led to a strong decrease of the elongation at break of R-HDPE /bagasse fiber composites, but the tensile properties were significantly improved with the addition of MAPE as a compatibilizer. The water absorption of R-HDPE/ bagasse fiber composites was higher than that of R-HDPE matrix alone. Meanwhile, the water absorption of treated composites was lower than that of untreated composites.
Thermal stability of R-HDPE/ bagasse fiber composites was lower than R-HDPE matrix. Poor adhesion between bagasse fiber and R-HDPE was observed by scanning electron microscope, but addition of MAPE improved the interfacial adhesion between fiber and matrix.