Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
1466706 Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing 2011 9 Pages PDF
Abstract

The focus of this work was to evaluate the transcrystalline effects at poly(lactic acid) (PLA) matrix caused by various sisal fibres, which were untreated (U-sisal), or treated with alkali (A-sisal) and silane (S-sisal). Isothermal crystallization was performed at temperatures between 123 and 130 °C using polarized optical microscopy. Results showed that the sisal fibres untreated or treated all had a nucleating ability to transcrystallize in PLA matrix. Based on the theory of heterogeneous nucleation, the interfacial free energy difference functions Δσ were determined to be 0.68, 0.65, and 0.65 erg/cm2 for PLA/U-sisal, PLA/A-sisal and PLA/S-sisal, respectively. This suggests that the fibre surface modification by using alkali or silane has little or no influence to the nucleation ability of sisal fibre in PLA matrix.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Materials Science Ceramics and Composites
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