Abstract
Transcrystallinity (TC) developing on the fiber surface of natural fiber/semicrystalline polymer composites shows great application potential in interfacial enhancement. The local mechanical properties of TC play a vital role in understanding the interphase interaction mechanism. In this study, TC was firstly introduced in bamboo fiber-anchored nano-TiO2/polypropylene (PP) composite and subsequently the local mechanical properties of TC were measured in situ on nanoscale by static nanoindentation tests. Results showed that pristine bamboo fiber had poor nucleation ability for the crystallization of PP, while the fiber incorporated with nano-TiO2 could successfully form the TC in composites because of the effect of nano-TiO2 on inducing heterogeneous nucleation and the increase in fiber surface roughness which led to a higher nucleation ability. The interfacial stress transfer ability of composites was quantitatively evaluated by interfacial shear strength (IFSS). The results revealed that the IFSS of composites with interfacial TC increased by 48.9% compared with the composite without TC and the IFSS increased nonlinearly with the thickening of TC. Nanoindentation tests results demonstrated that the hardness (H) and modulus of elasticity (E) were increased by 53.46 and 24.65% in composite interphase due to the formation of TC. The correlation analysis indicated that better local mechanical properties of the interphase resulted in higher interfacial stress transfer ability in composites.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32001263) and (32071856), Fujian Natural Science Foundation Key Project (2020J02031), the Foundation of International Centre for Bamboo and Rattan (1632019002).
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Luan, Y., Fang, C., Wang, H. et al. Formation of transcrystallinity and characterization of its nanoscale mechanical properties in bamboo fiber-anchored nano-TiO2/polypropylene composites. Wood Sci Technol 56, 1801–1817 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-022-01428-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-022-01428-4