Mechanical and thermo-mechanical behaviors of sizing-treated corn fiber/polylactide composites

Sizing treatment of glass fiber has been shown to effectively improve fiber-matrix interfacial adhesion whereas few studies have been conducted on the sizing treatment of natural fibers. In this work, corn fiber was subjected to alkali and sizing treatments. The treated corn fibers were used to prepare corn fiber reinforced polylactide (CF/PLA) composites through mechanical mixing and injection molding. Fiber surface, tensile fracture surface, mechanical properties and thermo-mechanical behavior of various CF/PLA composites were characterized. SEM observation indicates better interfacial adhesion between sizing-treated corn fiber and PLA, as compared to untreated and alkali-treated corn fibers, due to the interfacial reactions at fiber-matrix interfaces. Sizing-treated CF/PLA composites demonstrate improved mechanical properties and thermo-mechanical behavior as compared to PLA composites containing untreated and alkali-treated corn fibers. It is demonstrated that sizing treatment of corn fiber could be a potential and promising method to produce high performance biocomposites.