The reinforcement efficacy of nano- and microscale silica for extruded wood flour/HDPE composites: the effects of dispersion patterns and interfacial modification

Mechanical reinforcement and creep resistance of coextruded wood flour/polyethylene composites by shell‐layer treatment with nano‐ and micro‐SiO2 particles

“…Treatment of mSiO 2 with VTS resulted in proper improvement in impact strength at low mSiO 2 content (Fig. d), which was due to enhanced interfacial bonding of mSiO 2 with HDPE . The increment of impact strength decreased at high mSiO 2 contents due to increase of material stiffness (Fig.…”

“…b). The spherical mSiO 2 particles had diameters of 0.5–10 µm ; they were visible in the shell layers (Fig. c–f).…”

“…Flexural strength increased with increasing nSiO 2 content and the maximal enhancement was 41% at 20% nSiO 2 content. The reinforcement was attributed to a small size effect of the nSiO 2 in the sample . The nSiO 2 has high specific surface area and surface energy, which facilitates to establish the immobilization sites on the HDPE chains via Van der Waal forces.…”

“…The VTS silica treatment was referred from our previous study . VTS and the mSiO 2 or nSiO 2 particles were added to the solvent of ethanol/water (95/5 in volume) under stirring with a speed of 200 rpm at room temperature for approximately 2 h using the above stirrer at the specific ratio (Table ).…”

“…However, the reinforcing efficacy may decrease for WPCs due to the presence of a high content of wood flour . We have previously demonstrated that vinyl trimethoxy silane (VTS) modified silica can improve the strength and toughness of WPCs . Therefore, silica may also play a positive role in the shell layer to improve the strength of the resulting coextruded WPCs.…”