Polymer composite reinforcement

Polymer composites reinforced with natural fibers have received considerable attention. Polysaccharides have attracted the attention of scientists and... 

Covalent functionalisation and the surface chemistry of CNTs have been envisaged as very important factors for the processing and applications of nanotubes. Recently, many efforts on polymer composite reinforcement have been focused on an integration of chemically modified nanotubes containing different functional groups into the polymer matrix. Covalent functionalisation of CNTs can be achieved by either direct addition reactions of reagents to the sidewalls of nanotubes or the modification of appropriate surface-bound functional e.g. carboxylic acid) groups on to the nanotubes. " ... 

A thermoplastic polymer composition reinforced with fibers such as cellulose or other fillers, particularly from natural sources, and a process for manufacturing the composition has been described (26). The polymer is extruded with a salt which reduces the melting point and pelletized. The pellets are then extruded again with the filler. The composition with the filler can then be melted at the reduced melting temperature to manufacture an article. 

The interfacial shear strength of polymer composites reinforced with lignocellulosic fibers has been evaluated using (9.2) for the critical length obtained in CLP curves. Transformation of this equation provides a simple way to determine the IFSS of a system composed of a given lignocellulosic fiber embedded into a polymeric matrix. 

Pineapple (Ananas comosus), which is native to Brazil, is a tropical plant with leaves rich in cellulose. Being relatively inexpensive and abundantly available, pineapple fiber may be considered for polymer composite reinforcement. Today, pineapple leaves are a by-product of pineapple cultivation [3]. Devi et al. [43] investigated the dynamic mechanical behavior of pineapple leaf fiber-reinforced polyester composites. Threepopnatkul et al. [44] studied the effects of fiber surface treatments on the performance of pineapple leaf fiber-carbonate composite. 

It has been observed from the above discussion that mechanical, physico-chemical and fire retardancy properties of UPE matrix increases considerably on reinforcement with surface-modified natural cellulosic fibers. The benzoylated fibers-reinforced composite materials have been found to have the best mechanical and physico-chemical properties, followed by mercerized and raw Grewia optiva fibers-reinforced composites. From the above data it is also clear that polymer composites reinforced with 30% fibers loading showed the best mechanical properties. Further, benzoylated fibers-reinforced composites were also found to have better fire retardancy properties than mercerized and raw fibers-reinforced polymer composites. Fire retardancy behavior of raw and surface-modified Grewia optiva/GPE composites have been found to increase when fire retardants were used in combination with fibers. This increase in fire retardancy behavior of resulted composites was attributed to the higher thermal stability of magnesium hydroxide/zinc borate. 

Classification of Polymer Composites Reinforced with Natural Fibers... 

The Kelly-Tyson model for the prediction of the strength (a ) of a polymer composite reinforced with discrete aligned fibers [5,6] is given by ... 

Guiraud, O., Dumont, R, Orgeas, L., Vassal, J. R, Le, T. H. and Favier, D. (2010), Towards the simulation of mould filling with polymer composites reinforced with mineral fillers and short fibres , International Journal of Material Forming, 3(S2), S1313-S1326. 

Mechanical properties are critical for many composite applications. The properties of the composites depend on the combination of the properties of the matrix and the reinforcing agent or fiber. The properties of polymer composites reinforced with short fibers depend on such factors as the fiber/ matrix interaction, the orientation and volume fraction of the fiber, the fiber aspect ratio (defined as Lid where L and d correspond to the fiber length and diameter, respectively) (Chawla, 1998) and processing conditions (Thomas and Pothan, 2008). Different tests can be used to evaluate the mechanical properties of the composites, such as tensile, flexural or impact resistance tests (Izod or Charpy tests). 

Key words fibre-reinforced polymer composites, polyester, theimoset polymers, composites, reinforced polymers, construction materials, mechanical properties. 

Finally, starting from the opinion [5] that today we cannot be happy with the mechanical performance of polymer composites reinforced with nano-sized fillers of various origins, new routes to create polymeric materials with improved properties have to be researched in addition to attempts to overcome the disadvantages. An attractive alternative in this respect seems to be the preparation of polymers themselves as nano-sized materials, as, for example, electrospinning does. 

Considering the valuable properties of polymer-polymer composites and the single polymer composites reinforced with micro- or nanofibrUs, namely their light weight, recyclability and competitive mechanical performance, they are expected to find important applications in the vehicle industry, particularly in car manufacturing. 

Polymer composites reinforced with electrospun polymer nanofibers have so far been developed mainly for providing some outstanding physical e.g., optical and electrical) and chemical properties [20,21], Most of the applications at present focus on very small quantity usage for instance, reinforcement of dental resins, thin films, or in the case of large scale composites parts, only as additional ply interface reinforcement between composite laminates [21], As mentioned before, the biggest issues remain fiber alignment and collection at reasonable production rates. Therefore, large scale production (both quantity and size) of SPCs may benefit more from the methods described in Sections 19,2.3 and 19.4.1. 

Other polymer composites reinforced by SCORIM techniques... 

The aim of this research was to create novel composites for bulk applications using cellulose as reinforcement. We intented to improve properties of polymer composites reinforced with cellulose by pretreating fibers with maleic anhydride modified polypropylene (MAPP). The effect of hydrolytical treatment of cellulose on the dispersibility of fibers in polymers was also investigated. Novel materials based on bacteria-produced polyesters and cellulose were manufactured and their properties evaluated. 

For examining the surface morphology of polymeric UPE resin and UPE-based polymer composites reinforced with particle form of raw and mercerized C. indica fibers, scanning electron microscopy is an excellent technique. It has been observed... 

FTIR spectra of pure UPE matrix and its polymer composites reinforced with raw and mercerized C. indica fiber particle were recorded on Perkin Ehner infrared pec-trophotometer over a range of 400-4000cm (Fig. 15.9). 

Fernandes EM, Conelo VM, Mano JF, Reis RL (2013b) Novel cork-polymer composites reinforced with short natural coconut fibres effect of fibre loading and coupling agent addition. Compos Sci Technol 78 56-62... 

Polysilanes react readily with surfaces and molecules containing nucleophilic oxygen. Thus, they can be used as adhesion promoters on glass or oxide materials. The preparation of polymer composites reinforced by glass particles is one example of... 

Polymer composites reinforced with inorganic fillers of dimensions in the nanometer range, known as nanocomposites, have attracted great attention of researchers due to unexpected synergistic properties derived from two components. The most studied polymer nanocomposites (PNs) are composed of thermoplastic or thermosetting matrix and organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT) l-4] or carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [5-7]. 

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