Shear-induced crystallization of natural fiber-polypropylene composites

Abstract

Comparative study of shear-induced crystallization among injection molded polypropylene (PP) composites from vetiver grass, rossells, and sisal were examined. Shear viscosity among PP composites from vetiver grass, rossells, and sisal were investigated. Results indicated that the vetiver grass-PP composite had lower Tc, than those of rosells-PP, and sisal-PP composites. The %crystallinity of vetiver grass-PP was higher than those of rossells-PP and sisal-PP composites. However, the normalized thickness of the skin layer in vetiver grass-PP, rossells-PP, and sisal-PP composites showed insignificantly differences. In addition, the effect of fiber content on the normalized thickness of skin layer was elucidated. It was found that an increase of fiber contents led to a decrease in normalized thickness of skin layer and degree of crystallinity of the composites.