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Plasma treatment application to improve interfacial adhesion in polypropylene‐flax fabric composite laminates
Author(s) -
Leone Giulia,
D'Angelo Gennaro Antonio,
Russo Pietro,
Ferraro Pietro,
Pagliarulo Vito
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
polymer composites
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1548-0569
pISSN - 0272-8397
DOI - 10.1002/pc.26497
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , polypropylene , ultimate tensile strength , flexural strength , composite number , absorption of water , composite laminates , fiber , plain weave , yarn
Recently, due to environmental and sustainability issues, the scientific community has been attracted to renewable natural resources, even for the development of materials intended for structural applications. This work deals with the pre‐treatment of a flax fiber fabric by exploring the effects of the exposure time to nitrogen plasma on the ultimate performance of polypropylene matrix composite laminates potentially usable for the realization of internal parts in the naval sector. Flax fabrics were treated with three different exposure times (5, 10, and 15 min) with the aim to improve the adhesion between the hydrophilic fibers and the hydrophobic matrix. At first, transverse and longitudinal wicking tests were carried out on the treated fabrics in order to evaluate the improvement of the absorption constants after the formation of reactive groups on their surface. The results collected so far in terms of fabric water uptake, tensile, and flexural properties as well as morphological aspects (SEM analysis) and damage evolution (ESPI technique), have indicated that the optimal pre‐treatment time of the reinforcing fabrics is equal to 15 min. Compared to the laminate with untreated fabrics, the specimen with flax fibers treated for 15 min displays higher tensile properties with an increase of 6.8% and 22.31% in ultimate strength and modulus, respectively. More in general, the achievements of this research might be useful to extend the current range of applications of flax fibers even in industrial fields still dominated by conventional fibers.

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