Study on Ramie Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene Composites (RF-PP) and its Mechanical Properties

Natural fiber reinforced polypropylene composites (NF/PP) have attracted a lot of attention because of their light weight, good mechanical properties, recyclable and environmental friendly features. This work has successfully fabricated ramie fiber reinforced polypropylene composites (RF/PP) with a hybrid method of melt-blending and injection molding. Different RF/PP eco-materials have been fabricated by varying the fiber length, fiber content and way of fiber pre-treatment. This paper studied the mechanical properties of the fabricated RF/PP composites in depth by investigating the mechanical behaviors of RF/PP and microstructures of the ruptured surfaces. The results show that the increases of fiber length and fiber content can improve the tensile strength, flexural strength and compression strength apparently, but result in negative influences on the impact strength and elongation behaviors of RF/PP composites. The optimal addition amount of ramie fiber is around 20 wt%. The pre-treatment of ramie fiber in 10%~15% NaOH is good to the mechanical properties of RF/PP. The fiber length can be varied in the range of 3-8 mm. It is expected that the fabricated RF/PP composites can be applied to automobile industry as environmental friendly eco-materials.