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Abstract
To improve interfacial adhesion between hydrophilic cellulose fiber and hydrophobic polymer matrix, ramie fibers were pretreated with isopropanol and n-butanol and then plasma treated using an atmospheric pressure plasma apparatus. For the plasma-treated fibers, the scanning electron microscopy shows increased surface roughness and the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis shows a significant increase of C–C bond in isopropanol-pretreated group, whereas for n-butanol-pretreated group the raise of C=O bonds is most noticeable. For both alcohol-pretreated and plasma-treated groups, the water contact angles increase significantly. Microbond pull-out test shows interfacial shear strengths of fiber/polypropylene (PP) samples increase by 47 and 34%, respectively, for the two groups compared with the control. Therefore, it can be concluded that the reaction between both alcohols and cellulose induced by plasma can indeed create a fiber surface with increased roughness and decreased polarity, and thus is more compatible to PP.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2007AA03Z101), the State Key Program of National Natural Science of China (No. 51035003), Natural Science Foundation for the Youth (Nos. 50803010 and 60904056), National Science Foundation for Post-doctoral Scientists of China (No. 20100470664), Shanghai Post-doctoral Research Funded Project (No. 09R21410100), and the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (No. B07024).