Mechanical, flammability, and crystallization behavior of polypropylene composites reinforced by aramid fibers

In this article, we report the mechanical and thermal properties, together with the crystallization and flammability behaviors, of pure polypropylene (PP) and PP/aramid fiber (AF) composites with AF loadings of 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 wt %. The mechanical properties of the samples were evaluated by tensile and izod notched impact tests, and the results show that the tensile strength of the composites could reach up to 67.8 MPa and the izod notched impact strength could rise to 40.1 kJ/m2. The structure and morphology were observed by scanning electron microscopy and polarized optical microscopy, respectively. This demonstrated that a solid interface adhesion between the matrix and fibers was formed. The thermal and crystalline behaviors of the PP/AF composites were also investigated by thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry analysis, and the results show that the char residue of the PP/AF composites improved greatly with increasing AF loading, and the highest value could reach up to 23.7% in the presence of 40 wt % AF. The supercooling degree, initial crystallization temperature, and crystallization percentage were used to characterize the crystallization behavior of the PP/AF composites, and the results indicate that the AFs had positive effects on the promotion of PP nucleation, which can usually improve the mechanical properties of composites. Moreover, the flammability analysis of the PP/AF composites demonstrated that the presence of AFs could significantly decrease the peak heat release rate and the total heat release and reduce the melt-dripping of the PP/AF composites. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012