Surface Characteristic and Direct Interaction Measurement on Ramie (Boehmeria Nivea) Single Fiber - Polymer Matrix

An approach to understanding compatibility between ramie fiber as reinforcement in polymer resin was pursued by investigation of the surface porosity and contact angle measurement. Treatment the fibers is a must to obtain optimal wettability and also intimate contact as a lock and key mechanism between the fiber surface and polymer resin. Fiber surface porosity was examined by BET (BrunaeurEmmet-Teller) method. It was surprising that the fiber treated by silane (trimethoxymethylsilane) and methylethylketone (MEK) had a higher porous diameter and specific surface area compared to ethanol and acetone. Comparison of wetting process between polypropylene (PP) and epoxy resins were also provided. Improvement was also showed by optimum contact angle between the fiber and PP droplets. which had cos θ H≈0.939 Both polypropylene and epoxy resin have a good wettability which had contact angle θ < 550. From the pull-out test, the fiber embedded in epoxy and polypropylene with embedded length 1 and 2 mm (approximate) showed that epoxy matrix had a lower interfacial shear strength (ISS) than PP. Fiber-matrix pull-out fracture mechanism indicated from SEM proved that fiber embedded in PP matrix had better bonding-ability except for untreated fiber-PP. In semi-empirical stress distribution data, it was also found that ineffective lengths of ramie-PPs were remain lower than ramie-epoxy. Finally, the effect of solvent based treatment and silane coupling agent to the fiber surface proving that hydrophilic ramie fiber and hydrophobic polymeric materials can be combined and interact together to build an intimate contact due to fiber surface topography and chemical/physical interaction to the polymeric matrix.