Effects of modifying agents on surface modifications of magnesium oxide whiskers

In this work, the MgO whiskers have been treated by several modifying agents including the mixture of dl-malic acid oligo-l-lactide (g), aluminate coupling agent (Al) and stearic acid (Sa). The morphologies, covering quantity, compositions and components of the whiskers before and after the modifications were investigated by SEM, TG, XRD and FT-IR, respectively. Comparisons have been made on the morphologies of modified whiskers by different modifiers tailoring. The results show that the MgO whiskers treated by stearic acid have superior performance to the others, especially in terms of uniform dispersion. In contrast, both the mixture of dl-malic acid oligo-l-lactide and aluminate coupling agent have the negative effects on whiskers' dispersibility. FT-IR reveals that the chemical bonds were formed between the whiskers and each modifying agent and the XRD testing demonstrate that the crystal structures of the modified whiskers were well maintained without significant change.