Effect of chemical treatment on thermophysical behavior of Spanish broom flour-reinforced polypropylene biocomposite

Abstract

AbstractThis work presents the chemical modification of Spanish broom flour (SBF), and the study of SBF loading and surface treatment on the performances of polypropylene (PP) biocomposites. In order to enhance the interfacial interactions between the PP matrix and the SBF, two types of chemical treatments were used: 2 wt% of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for different times (8, 24 and 48 h) and 5 wt% of vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS), respectively. Different techniques for characterization such as the melting flow index (MFI), X-ray diffraction, transient plane source (TPS) and water absorption were used. The experiment results showed a decrease of the MFI with increasing of modified SBF content, independently of the type of the chemical treatment. Moreover, this decrease became significant in the biocomposites containing SBF-VTMS. The X-ray patterns showed that surface treatment of SBF could improve their crystallinity and crystallite sizes. The TPS measurements illustrates that the thermal conductivity of the biocomposites decreases with 10 wt% of modified SBF loading. Higher content than 20 wt% of SBF, improved the thermal conductivity of the biocomposites. Meanwhile, the lowest values were found when the VTMS is used. Besides, it was accompanied by a decrease in absorptivity due to the better interfacial adhesion SBF-PP.