Broom fibers as reinforcement for thermoplastic matrices

Vegetable fibers deriving from the basts of broom plants have been used as reinforcement for two polypropylenic matrices: a conventional isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and a maleate modified one (iPPMA). Before mixing the fibers were subjected to two different extraction procedures: a conventional alkaline treatment and an innovative steam explosion process. Afterwards, the composites obtained by compression moulding were thermally, morphologically, and mechanically characterized. Moreover, water absorption tests, to examine the behaviour of these materials in wet conditions, were also performed.     

Wetting fibers with liposomes

Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) are deposited on glass microfibers. The vesicles adopt the classical "onduloidal" shape of liquid droplets on fibers. They spread by two simultaneous mechanisms: envelopment and emission of a precursor film. This film spreads faster than on a uniform plane surface and eventually stops, signaling the presence of defects on the rod. This fast spreading tenses the vesicles; transient pores open on the GUVs and the internal liquid leaks out. This process leads to a new technique for fiber coating.     

Drawing behavior and characteristics of laser‐drawn polypropylene fibers

Drawing behavior, flow drawing, and neck drawing, was studied for isotacticpolypropylene fibers in CO₂ laser drawing system, and the fiber structure and the mechanical properties of drawn fibers were analyzed. For a certain laser power, flow drawing of polypropylene (PP) was possible up to draw ratio (DR) 19.5. Though the drawing stress was very low, the flow‐drawn PP fiber exhibited oriented crystal structure and improved mechanical properties. On the other hand, neck‐drawing was accomplished from DR 4 to 12, with significant increase in drawing stress that enhanced the development of fiber structure and mechanical properties. Unlike PET, the drawing stress depends not only on the DR, but on irradiated laser power also. The 10–12 times neck‐drawn fibers were highly fibrillated. The fibers having tensile strength 910 MPa, initial modulus 11 GPa, and dynamic modulus 14 GPa were obtained by single‐step laser drawing system. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 398–408, 2006     

Sorption properties of plasma-modified flax fibers

Effect of plasma modification on the sorption properties of short flax fibers for Zn(II) ions was studied.     

Treatment methods for plant fibers for use as reinforcement in cement-based materials

Cellulose - The use of natural fibers in cement-based building materials has become an emerging field in the building and construction industry. Natural plant fibers are green, sustainable, and...     

Wetting force measurements on single fibers

Wilhelmy-type wetting force measurements utilizing sensitive instrumentation are being used more and more to quantify the surface energetics of solids generally, and of filaments in particular. This report describes a recommended methodology for such measurements. It is shown that, under certain conditions, advancing and receding contact angles can be obtained from wetting force measurements alone without the need for independent determinations of specimen perimeter or liquid surface tension. Factors that may complicate or interfere with such contact angle determinations are discussed, including corrections for buoyancy, limitations on the magnitude of the contact angle, and specimen geometry requirements. Experiments demonstrating the use, reproducibility, and sensitivity of the methodology are summarized.     

Biochemical and physicochemical treatment of flax fibers

Conditions were found for separating concomitant substances from cellulose in short flax fibers by treatment with surfactant and enzyme solutions. The chemical composition of the treated fibers was analyzed, and their structural organization was studied by IR Fourier spectroscopy.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Khimii, Vol. 77, No. 10, 2004, pp. 1743–1746.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Shamolina, Bochek, Zabivalova, Vlasova, Volchek, Sinitsin.     

Microthermal analysis of the melting behavior in zone‐drawn isotactic polypropylene fibers

A microthermal analysis (μTA) method with an ultrahigh heating rate was applied to a zone‐drawn isotactic polypropylene fiber to evaluate the melting behaviors inherent to the microstructural changes occurring during the drawing process. The μTA melting point decreased with a reduction in the melting temperature because of the suppression of crystal reorganization and increased with an increase in the melting temperature because of the suppression of the relief of the orientation of the molecular chains, in comparison with the conventional melting point obtained by traditional differential scanning calorimetry. This study examined a convenient and powerful method for investigating the melting behavior for polymeric materials inherent to the original microstructure with less influence from thermal‐measurement heating. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3677–3681, 2004     

Kinetics of water sorption in flax and PET fibers

Composite materials are usually reinforced by synthetic fibers as carbon, glass etc…. Because of their good mechanical properties and low density, natural fibers are being considered more preferentially as reinforcement. The application of natural fibers as reinforcements in composite materials requires a strong adhesion between the fiber and the matrix. The poor resistance towards water absorption is one of the drawbacks of natural fibers which makes it more important to understand the dynamic properties of penetration of water molecules through these heterogeneous materials. Water vapour sorption kinetics in natural flax fibers have been performed at 25 °C by using an electronic microbalance (IGA, Hiden). By using the Fickian model for a complete cylinder water diffusion coefficients have been determined and calculated at short times (first half-sorption) and long times (second half-sorption) of kinetic curve and for different water activities. The values obtained for D₁ and D₂ are rather similar on the all range of water activity. Generally, water diffusivity increases and then decreases with water activity. The increase of diffusivity at low water activities may be explained on the basis of the dual mode sorption (Langmuir and Henry sorption’s combination) whereas the decrease for the higher activities can be attributed to the immobilization of sorbed water molecules due to the water clustering.     

Recovery of wool from flax fibers using nitric acid

The principal possibility of preparing wool from cottonized flax fibers using nitric acid both in the course of cooking and in the bleaching step was studied. The influence of the nitric acid concentration and cooking time on the extent of flax delignification was examined.     

Wetting behavior of low-index cubic SiC surfaces

We report on the interaction of water molecules with polar and nonpolar stoichiometric surfaces of cubic silicon carbide, as described by ab initio molecular dynamics at finite temperature. Our calculations show that, irrespective of coverage, in the gas phase water spontaneously dissociates on both polar Si-terminated (001) and nonpolar (110) surfaces, following similar mechanisms. The specific geometric arrangement of atoms on the outermost surface layer is responsible for water orientation and coordination and thus plays a major role in determining surface reactivity. This is found to be the case also for water on a computer-generated amorphous-SiC surface. In addition, from a macroscopic standpoint, the ability of the two crystalline surfaces with different polarities to induce water dissociation can be related to the similarities of their ionization potentials.     

Plasma-treated lignocellulosic fibers for polymer reinforcement. A review

Cellulose - Concerns on environmental issues are motivating the development of biodegradable materials and the use of sustainable processes. Among the most abundant biodegradable materials are...     

The crystallization of polypropylene/halloysite fibers

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The halloysite (HNT) in the form of nanotubes was used as an agent for the improved mechanical, thermo-mechanical as well as surface properties of...     

Biodegradation of flax fibers in the presence of silver nanoparticles

Biodegradation of flax fibers differing in the chemical composition, structure of cellulose, and content of concomitant natural impurities (pectin compounds, lignin, hemicellulose) was studied. The effect exerted on the biodegradation by silver nanoparticles immobilized in the fiber was evaluated.     

Wetting behavior of pulmonary surfactant aqueous solutions

The wetting properties of pulmonary surfactant aqueous solutions with respect to solid surfaces with different degree of hydrophobicity have been studied. The contact angles θ of drops from a pulmonary surfactant solution onto SiO₂-glass surfaces have been measured as a function of their degree of hydrophobicity θ _w. The completely hydrophilic SiO₂-glass surface is essentially hydrophobized by the animal-derived pulmonary surfactant Curosurf. The hydrophobization depends on the surfactant concentration—the contact angles increase with increasing the Curosurf concentration C _s in the low concentration range, but they remain almost constant in a wide range of C _s >90 μg/ml. Additions like NaCl and bovine serum albumin influence the θ-values. The contact angles θ naturally increase with increasing θ _w but this dependence is not linear—the curve steepens at larger θ _w values. The thickness h of the wetting thin liquid films from Curosurf aqueous solutions depends on the hydrophobicity θ _w of the solid surface and the h(θ _w) curves always pass a minimum. The h-values, as well as the h(θ _w) curve, are mainly determined by the steric and hydrophobic disjoining pressures, which depend on the orientations and conformations of the molecules adsorbed on the solid surface from the very complicated multi-component aqueous solutions.     

Quantitative characterization of deformation in polypropylene fibers

A modus operandi is developed for characterizing, in quantitative morphological terms, the structural changes occurring during the preparation (spinning, drawing, and heat setting) and testing (tensile modulus) of isotactic polypropylene fiber. This involves the application of the following eight different physical techniques: wide-angle x-ray diffraction, birefringence, density, sonic modulus, small-angle x-ray diffraction, dark-field microscopy, small-angle light scattering, and tensile modulus. Structural changes on several organizational levels, the spherulitic, the interlamellar, and the molecular, are determined in this manner and related to the processes involved.     

Fluorescence confocal microscopy as effective testing method of polypropylene fibers and single polymer composites

Single polymer composites are special type of composite made solely of one polymer. They are characterized by promising mechanical properties but the manufacturing process is very difficult to scale to mass production. In this paper a method of testing polymer fibers and single polymer composites was developed. The method provides fast and nondestructive detection of structural defects in fibers and delamination in single polymer composites, therefore it can be applied to quality control of the fibers as well as composites. The method based on the laser scanning confocal microscopy, that uses laser to scan the surface of the specimen and detect light of wavelength longer than laser beam. The results show that the luminescence occur only in the defected or delaminated spots of the sample. Raman and IR spectroscopies were used to analyze the source of the luminescence. The study indicates that the influence of impurities, additives and effects of chemical degradation of polymer doesn’t lead to luminescence of the specimen. As the explanation of the effect mechanical stress assisted photoluminescence was proposed.     

Melting behavior of drawn polypropylene

The melting behavior of drawn, compression-molded isotactic polypropylene has been ex-amined in terms of the infuence of drawing conditions on the observed properties. Two endothermic peaks were observed on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for samples when high draw ratios and high heating rates were used during DSC tests. The peak at lower temperature is influenced by draw ratio, temperature, and rate, and exhibits a strong superheating effect. The species associated with this peak can partially recrystallize into another species associated with the peak at higher temprature during DSC measurements. The position of the peak at higher temperature depends only on draw ratio. It is proposed that the doubel-melting peaks at lower and higher temperature result from extremely thin quasi-amorphous or crystalline layers between microfibrils and the lamellar crystals within microfibrils, repectively. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Calotropis gigantea fibers: A potential reinforcement for polymer matrices

Natural fibers are identified as one of the effective alternatives for reinforcing the polymer matrices on account of their sustainability and renewable characteristics by replacing the synthetic fibers. This study is intended to apprehend the properties of the fibers derived from the stem of Calotropis gigantea plant. The functional groups of biopolymers were recognized by Fourier transform infrared spectrum. The crystalline nature of the cellulose that represents the mechanical strength and integrity of the fibers was found from the X-ray diffraction, whereas the thermal behavior was studied by thermogravimetric analysis. Scanning electron microscope was used to study the morphology of the fibers. The results of these analytical studies have shown that the crystallinity index of the fibers was 56.08% and the fibers were able to withstand a temperature of about 220°C proving that the fibers can be used as effective reinforcements for polymer matrices similar to the commonly used bio-fibers.     

Characterization of surface modified flax fibers and their biocomposites with PHB

Flax fiber was treated with acetic anhydride or with ethylene plasma to improve adhesion with poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB). The flax fiber surface became hydrophobic by the surface treatments. The ethylene plasma treated flax fiber has better thermal resistance and shows higher interfacial adhesion strength in flax/PHB biocomposite than the chemically modified flax fiber with acetic anhydride. Optimum conditions of the ethylene plasma treatment were found to be 0.5 cm³/sec of the ethylene flow rate and 50 W of the plasma power with 5 min of the treatment time.