Cell morphology and property relationships of microcellular foamed pvc/wood‐fiber composites

Abstract

Wood-fiber composites make use of cellulose fibers as a reinforcing filler in the polymer matrix and are known to have a lower material cost and a higher stiffness than neat polymers. However, the lower material cost and enhanced stiffness of wood-fiber composites are achieved at the expense of other properties such as the ductility and impact strength. Since microcellular plastics exhibit a higher impact strength, higher toughness, and increased fatigue life compared to unfoamed plastics, microcellular foaming of wood-fiber composites will improve the mechanical properties of the composites and therefore increase the usefulness of the materials. In this paper, microcellular foamed WC/wood-fiber composites with unique cell morphology and material composition are characterized. Microcellular structures are produced in WC/wood-fiber composites by first saturating the composite samples with CO, under high pressure followed by rapidly decreasing the solubility of gas in the samples. The void fraction of the microcellular foamed WC/wood-fiber composites is controlled by tailoring the composition of materials and the foaming process parameters. The results indicate that tensile and impact properties of microcellular foamed WC/wood-fiber composites are most sensitive to changes in the cell morphology and the surface modification of fibers.

Effectiveness of Maleated and Acrylic Acid-Functionalized Polyolefin Coupling Agents for HDPE-Wood-Flour Composites

“…As expected from the rule of mixtures, addition of wood flour into the HDPE matrix significantly increased the tensile modulus of the composites (Table 2) [7,9,10,24,25]. Furthermore, the use of coupling agents did not affect the tensile modulus of the composites, regardless of the functional monomer or base resin types.…”

Mechanical, thermal, morpological properties and decay resistance of filled hazelnut husk polymer composites

“…Addition of lignocellulosic material offers many benefits to the final product such as lower weight, decreased erosion of the manufacturing machinery, lower cost and the absence of production of residue or toxic by-products when burnt. Thus lignocellulosic materials are preferred as a filler in producing the polymer-composites (Ismail et al 2001, Matuana et al 1998.…”

Development of an extrusion system for producing fine‐celled HDPE/wood‐fiber composite foams using CO2 as a blowing agent

“…However, these improvements are often accompanied by loss in the ductility and impact resistance of these composites. [3][4][5][6] Another disadvantage of plastic/WF composites is their increased density compared to unfilled thermoplastics and natural wood. [7][8][9][10] Moreover, there are several problems associated with the manufacturing of these composites.…”