Adhesion of Polymer Spheres to Modified Natural Fibers
EMSL Project ID
25444
Abstract
The technical motivation of the research is to advance current capabilities in natural fiber surface chemistry to develop modification processes that simultaneously displace water within the fiber and introduce desired surface modification. The overall goal is to improve processability and increase durability by enhancing the interfacial polymer-fiber bonding and mechanical properties through minimization of moisture absorption in natural fiber reinforced polymer composites. Ultimately, these functionalized natural fibers will enable lightweight, bio-based, recyclable, energy-saving polymer composite materials for transportation applications.In order to accurately characterize the polymer-functionalized fiber adhesion, we propose to utilize Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) that incorporates a polymer sphere fixed to a tipless AFM cantilever to measure the adhesive forces on both modified and unmodified bast-based natural fibers. These measurements will be complemented with surface characterization utilizing Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Photo Spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In addition, to examine the structure of the fiber and to expose surfaces of the natural fibers via the removal of the outer layers, a Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope (FIB-SEM) will be employed. The measurements proposed herein will quantify the natural fiber surface modification via nano-scale force measurements, the first attempt known to the author that this has been conducted between polymer spheres and natural fibers via AFM.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2007-05-31
End Date
2009-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members