Dynamic Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Bagasse/Glass Fiber/Polypropylene Hybrid Composites

This work aims to evaluate the thermal and dynamic mechanical properties of bagasse/glass fiber/polypropylene hybrid composites. Composites were prepared by the melt compounding method and their properties were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). DSC results found that with incorporation of bagasse and glass fiber the melting temperature (Tm) and the crystallisation temperature (Tc) shift to higher temperatures and the degree of crystallinity (Xc) increase. These findings suggest that the fibers played the role of a nucleating agent in composites. Dynamic mechanical analysis indicated that by the incorporation of bagasse and glass fiber into polypropylene, the storage modulus ( ) and the loss modulus ( ) increase whereas the mechanical loss factor (tanδ) decrease. To assess the effect of reinforcement with increasing temperature, the effectiveness coefficient C was calculated at different temperature ranges and revealed that, at the elevated temperatures, improvement of mechanical properties due to the presence of fibers was more noticeable. The fiber-matrix adhesion efficiency determined by calculating of adhesion factor A in terms of the relative damping of the composite (tan δc) and the polymer (tan δp)and volume fraction of the fibers (Фf). Calculated adhesion factor A values indicated that by adding glass fiber to bagasse/polypropylene system, the fiber-matrix adhesion improve. Hybrid composite containing 25% bagasse and 15% glass fiber showed better fiber-matrix adhesion.