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Effect of Intercalation Structure of Organo-Modified Montmorillonite/Polylactic Acid on Wheat Straw Fiber/Polylactic
Qiqi Fan1, Guangping Han2, Wanli Cheng3
1Key Laboratory of Bio-Based Material Science and Technology (Ministry of Education), Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China. fanqiqi@nefu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
In this work, an easy way to prepare the polylactic acid (PLA)/wheat straw fiber (WSF) composite was proposed. The method involved uses either the dopamine-treated WSF or the two-step montmorillonite (MMT)-modified WSF as the filler material. In order to achieve the dispersibility and exfoliation of MMT, it was modified by 12-aminododecanoic acid using a two-step route. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were performed to characterize the modified MMT and the coated WSF. As for the properties of PLA/WSF composites, some thermal (using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and thermogravimetric analysis) and mechanical properties (flexural, tensile, and impact) were analyzed. The results showed that the dopamine was successfully coated onto the WSF. Furthermore, Na-MMT was successfully transformed to organo-montmorillonite (OMMT) and formed an exfoliated structure. In addition, a better dispersion of MMT was obtained using the two-step treatment. The interlayer spacing of modified MMT was 4.06 nm, which was 123% higher than that of the unmodified MMT. Additionally, FT-IR analysis suggested that OMMT diffused into the PLA matrix. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that a higher thermal stability of PLA/WSF composites was obtained for the modified MMT and dopamine. The results also showed that both the dopamine treated WSF and the two-step-treated MMT exhibited a positive influence on the mechanical properties of PLA/WSF composites, especially on the tensile strength, which increased by 367% compared to the unmodified precursors. This route offers researchers a potential scheme to improve the thermal and mechanical properties of PLA/WSF composites in a low-cost way.
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