Thermal analysis of aged hdpe based composites

HDPE based composites were produced with 10-20-30 and 40% composite mass of wood fiber. The coupling agents were epolene and silane. The thermal behavior of composite samples was analyzed as a function of the coupling agent content, the exposure time and the wood fibers content by means of differential scanning calorimetry. Calorimetric curves of all samples of first and second heating shows a similar behavior. Some significant relation has been observed between the exposure time and the degree of crystallinity for the same percentage of fiber samples. A linear relation between the melting enthalpy average vs. content in cellulosic fibers is detected. Nevertheless, the fibers non-pretreated with coupling agent show a lower loss of crystallinity of the HDPE matrix at low wood fiber content (10%). A slight diminution of the melting peak temperature is detected as increasing the exposure time. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.