Effects of rice husk fibers on the properties of mixed-particle-size fiber-reinforced polyvinyl chloride composites under soil accelerated aging conditions

Abstract

In this article, rice husk fiber/polyvinyl chloride composites were prepared and analyzed. The optimal composition of mixed-particle-size fiber-reinforced composites was determined through orthogonal experimentation. The physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of the mixed-particle-size fiber-reinforced composites were compared to unprocessed (100 mesh) rice husk fiber/polyvinyl chloride composites. The surface microscopic appearances of the unprocessed and final composites were observed via laser microscope. Long-term accelerated soil aging caused micro-cracks to appear on the surfaces of the composites. Interfacial adhesion was observed via scanning electron microscopy. The results indicated that mixed-particle-size fibers can better fill interfacial gaps, leading to strong interfacial adhesion. Furthermore, the addition of mixed-particle-size fibers improves the soil aging resistance of composites. The hardness, flexural strength, impact strength, and first onset pyrolysis temperature (after 0 days) increase from 50 HRR, 35.2 MPa, 3.19 KJ/m2, and 258.5°C to 55 HRR, 39.4 MPa, 3.86 KJ/m2, and 261.2°C, respectively. However, the mass loss rate and thickness expansion rate (after 21 days) decrease from 2.9% and 0.79% to 2.21% and 0.74%, respectively. In general, the addition of mixed-particle-size fibers improves the ultimate properties of composites under soil aging conditions.

Corrigendum to “Characterization of Rice Husk Fiber-Reinforced Polyvinyl Chloride Composites under Accelerated Simulated Soil Conditions”

“…Article [1] used orthogonal experiments to determine the soil aging conditions and studied the performance changes before and after aging of rice husks (100 meshes) and PVC (100 meshes) composites. Article [2] focused on the optimization of rice husk/PVC formulations.…”

“…Since the second paper was an extension of the first paper, the authors compared the data from [1] to prove the conclusions. In article [2], the formula of MSRC was a particle size ratio of mixed-particle-size fibers of 80 : 120, mass ratio of mixed-particle-size fibers of 7 : 3, and mass ratio of wood-to-plastic of 4 : 6. The microstructure of RHRC (0 day and 21 days) shown in Figures 3(a Wave number (cm -1 )…”