Mechanical behaviour of polypropylene reinforced sugarcane bagasse fibers composites

Recently the interest in composite materials reinforced with natural fibers has considerably increased due to the new environmental legislation as well as consumer pressure that forced manufacturing industries to search substitutes for the conventional materials, e.g. glass fibers. This way, the objective of paper was evaluate the effect of chemical modification on mechanical properties of sugarcane bagasse fiber/PP composites. Fibers were pretreated with 10% sulfuric acid solution, followed by delignification with 1% sodium hydroxide solution. These fibers were mixed with the polypropylene in a thermokinetic mixer, and compositions with 5 to 20 wt% of fibers were obtained. The mechanical properties were evaluated by means of tensile, 3-point bending and impact tests. In addition, fracture analysis via SEM (secondary electrons mode) was performed. Results showed improve the tensile, flexural and impact strength of the composites in comparison to the polymer pure.