Effects of surface treatment on mechanical and thermal properties of jute fabric-reinforced poly(butylene succinate) biodegradable composites

Biodegradable composites based on poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and unidirectional plain jute fabrics have been developed. These composites were fabricated by compression molding of sandwiching 4-7 jute fabric layers between five and eight layers of PBS sheets. Surface modification of the jute fabric by alkali and combined alkali-silane treatments was investigated. The effects of surface modification on the mechanical and thermal properties of jute fabric/PBS biodegradable composites were studied. The mechanical properties of surface-treated jute fabric/PBS biodegradable composites were significantly higher than those of untreated ones. Compared with the alkali treatment, the combined alkali-silane treatment showed higher mechanical properties of the jute fabric/PBS biodegradable composites. The alkali-silane-treated jute fabric/PBS biodegradable laminated composite with six reinforced fabric layers (47.5 wt.%) achieved the best mechanical properties in this study, which showed an increase in tensile strength by 16.4%, tensile modulus by 10.8%, flexural strength by 24.2%, and flexural modulus by 21.9% compared with those of untreated one. Fractured surface morphologies of tensile specimens exhibited an improvement of interfacial fiber-matrix adhesion in the PBS biodegradable composites reinforced with surface-treated jute fabric. Thermal stability of the jute fabric/PBS biodegradable composites was remarkably to be intermediate between the PBS resin and the jute fabric. Surface-treated jute fabric/PBS biodegradable composites having good interfacial fiber-matrix adhesion resulted in stable composites with better thermal stability than that of untreated ones.