Composites: Part B 47 (2013) 35–41

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Composites: Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Tensile, flexural and torsional properties of chemically treated alfa, coir

and bagasse reinforced polypropylene
F.Z. Arrakhiz a, M. Malha b, R. Bouhfid a, K. Benmoussa a, A. Qaiss a,⇑
a
Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation and Research (MAScIR), Institute of Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology (Nanotech), Laboratory of Polymer Processing.
Rabat, Morocco
b
Faculty of Science, Mohammed V University, LMM, Rabat, Morocco

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Mechanical properties of alfa, coir and bagasse fibers reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites have
Received 12 December 2011 been investigated. In order to improve the composite’s mechanical properties, fibers were alkali treated
Received in revised form 3 October 2012 before compounding to remove natural waxes and other non cellulosic compounds. The mechanical
Accepted 29 October 2012
properties of the composites obtained with these three fibers were found to be superior to those of
Available online 24 November 2012
the neat polymer. Addition of various amount of reinforcement fibers yielded noticeable increases in both
tensile and flexural modulus as well as the torsion parameter. 56–75% increases in tensile modulus were
Keywords:
observed by the use of alfa, coir and bagasse while the flexural modulus increased by 30–47% when com-
A. Polymer–matrix composites (PMCs)
A. Fibers
pared to neat PP. An increase in torsion modulus is also observed when the fiber content exceeds a
B. Mechanical properties threshold level. A power law model was developed using an experimental data to calculate the torsion
modulus of fiber-reinforced composites at various fiber loading and frequencies.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The wider use of natural fibers to reinforce thermoplastic ma-
trix is been sought in several application fields because of the eco-
nomic benefits and environmentally friendliness brought by such
renewable resource [1,2]. Natural fibers are generally used as feed-
stock material in the paper industry or as combustible for energy
production [2]. But new and higher-valued uses for natural fibers
are being developed among which is as reinforcing materials for
the production of components in many industries as the automo-
tive industry [3]. Various fibers such as Oil palm fruit brunch fiber
[3], Jute [4], Betelnut [5], coir [6], Hemp [7] or Henequen [8] have
been tested as reinforcement in composites, to yield many desir-
able properties when utilized as reinforcement in polymer com-
posites [9].
In addition, to the aforementioned fibers, alfa, coir and bagasse
fibers can be valorized through compounding into fiber-reinforced
polymer composites. These three fibers from diverse origin were
selected to evaluate their benefits as reinforcing agent in a poly-
propylene matrix (PP). The choice of the matrix was driven by
the large industrial application of the PP as commodity polymer
with low cost, processing ease and large scale production [10].
It is well-known however that the hydrophilic characteristics of
natural fibers create difficulties in achieving a proper homogeniza-
tion with the polymer chains [11]; as a result, a poor adhesion be-
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +212 662092719; fax: +212 530300671.
E-mail address: a.qaiss@mascir.com (A. Qaiss).
tween fibers and polymer is often seen. To overcome this, several
techniques were investigated to improve the fiber–matrix compat-
ibility that includes grafting of compatibilizer groups, addition of a
coupling agent or cleaning the fibers’ surface [1,11,12]. Esterification
or etherification of the hydroxyl groups found on the fibers’ surface
are two chemicals treatment possible [11]. Another pathway is the
use of maleic anhydride modified polypropylene (MAPP) as a cou-
pling agent to reduce the surface tension between fibers and matrix
[13]. In the scope of this study, we have chosen an alkali treatment as
a simple but appropriate technique to modify the fiber surface in or-
der to improve adhesion between fibers and matrix [13].
Three different natural fibers were used to reinforce PP, using in
each case a fiber content ranging from 5 to 30 wt.%. The effect of
fibers on the mechanical properties of composite materials were
investigated, namely the tensile, flexural and torsion properties.
A power law model was developed from the experimental data
to define the torsional behaves when fibers content was changed
and frequencies. Thus, this kind of model was chosen to describe
the linear Log/Log behavior.
2. Materials and experimental details
2.1. Material preparation
Polypropylene was selected as the matrix [PP5032 from Exxon-
Mobil Chemical, density of 0.9 g/cm3, melting temperature of
165 °C]. Raw alfa fibers (Stipa tenacissima L.) with an average length

1359-8368/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2012.10.046
36 F.Z. Arrakhiz et al. / Composites: Part B 47 (2013) 35–41

This chemical treatment removes a certain amount of lignin, wax

and oils that covers the external surface of fibers cell wall [25].

2.2. Experimental procedure

Polymer composites reinforced with various amounts of natural

Fig. 1. Fibers length and width distribution.
fibers were prepared by compounding neat polypropylene with the
three alkali treated natural fibers, those being alfa, coir and
bagasse.
Various concentrations of natural fibers (5, 10, 15, 20, 25,
30 wt.%) were mechanically blended with polypropylene using a
Leistritz ZSE-18 twin-screw extruder (LEISTRITZ EXTRUSIONS-
TECHNIK GMBH, Germany) operating at a screw rate of 125 rpm
for the polymer feed. Fibers were added through a side feeder
screw rotating at 40 rpm. The seven section of the extruder barrel,
from hopper to die, were heated respectively to 200, 200, 200, 180,
180, 180, and 180 °C [26–28]. The strands coming out of the extru-
der were cooled in a water bath and pelletized (Thermo Fisher,
Stone, UK) into pieces of 2–3 mm length (Fig. 2a). All specimens
for tensile, flexural and torsion tests were molded using an Engel
e-Victory injection molding machine with a 40 tons platen force.
The process temperature was fixed at 200 °C in the barrel and at
180 °C at the nozzle while the mold was maintained at 45 °C
(Fig. 2b).

2.3. Scanning electron microscopy

Table 1 Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to evaluate the

Composition and properties of some natural fibers from literature.
fibers dispersion in the polymer matrix and to illustrate their fibril-
Chemical constituents (%) Physical properties lar morphology. To obtain clean and precise fracture faces, all com-
Cellulose Lignin Waxes Density Tensile strength Tensile modulus posites samples were fractured after immersion in liquid nitrogen.
(g/cm3) (MPa) (GPa)
Alfa 2.4. Characterization
45 [13] 23 [13] 5 [13] 1.2 [14] 134–220 [15] 13–17.8 [15]
Coir The mechanical properties of the composites, namely their ten-
43 [16] 45 [16] – 1.15–1.25 120–304 [17] 4–6 [17] sile, flexural and torsion properties were characterized to evaluate
[17] the improvement derived from the addition of fibers. All tensile
Sugarcane bagasse tests were performed according to ISO 527-03 [29] at room tem-
50 [18] 25 [18] – – 96 [19] 6.42 [19] perature (24 °C) and a relative humidity between 30% and 40%,

of 25 cm were collected from various rural areas of Morocco while

coir fibers with a length of 20 cm were brought from Ivory Coast.
The third fiber, called bagasse, is a by-product of the Moroccan Su-
gar industry after sugarcane processing. Before further use, raw fi-
bers were grinded in a precision grinder (FRITSCH Pulverisette 19)
equipped with a 0.5 mm sieve, Fig. 1 illustrates the length and the
diameter distribution of the grinded fibers based on 50 dimen-
sioned fibers. The chemicals used for the alkali treatment of natural
fibers include sodium hydroxide (NaOH, 98% purity, Sigma–Aldrich
France) and acetic acid (CH3COOH, 99–100% purity, Riedel-de
Haën).
Density and mechanical properties were selected as criterions
to distinguish the three types of fibers. Table 1 summarizes both
physical properties as well as the chemical constituents found in
the fibers.

2.1.1. Chemical treatment of the natural fibers

To enhance fibers/matrix interactions, the whole fibers were
subjected to a chemical treatment to bleach and clean their surface
[20–22]. Crushed fibers are first washed thoroughly with water
then kept for 48 h in a 1.6 mol/l sodium hydroxide aqueous solu-
tion [23]. The fibers are then removed from the caustic solution
and quickly treated with acetic acid (100 ml) to neutralize the
remaining caustic [24], after which they were air-dried for 24 h. Fig. 2. (a) Extrusion process and (b) injection process.
 F.Z. Arrakhiz et al. / Composites: Part B 47 (2013) 35–41
using an INSTRON 8821S Universal Testing Machine. The cross-
head speed was fixed at 3 mm/min an average value recommended
in the international standard ISO 527-03 [29].
The three point bending flexural tests were done in accordance
to ASTM D790-03 [30] on the same tensile test machine equipped
with a homemade system having a sample support spanning
49.5 mm. The crosshead speed for the flexural tests was set at
2 mm/min. And it is calculated according to the following equation
[30]:
R ¼ ZL2 =6d
where Z, L and d are the rate of straining of outer fiber (0.01), the
support span (49.5 mm), and the depth of the beam (2 mm),
respectively.
For all tensile and flexural tests, five specimens were used to ob-
tain an average value comprising at least three similar data points.
Torsion tests were performed on an ARES-LS rheometer operat-
ing in rectangular torsion mode, using 5.5 mm width, 56.5 mm
length, and 2 mm thick samples. The torsion modulus (G⁄) and
Fig. 3. SEM micrographs of: (a) PP/30 wt.% alfa; (a0 ) alfa fiber. (b) PP/30 wt.% coir; (b0 ) coir fiber. (c) PP/30 wt.% bagasse; (c0 ) bagasse fiber.
37
the loss modulus factor (tan d) are obtained in oscillatory tests per-
formed at room temperature (24 °C) under various frequencies
ranging from 0.1 Hz to 40 Hz, where 0.1 Hz is a near quasi static
frequency and 40 Hz is an optimized frequency, where the com-
posite’s response is as a pure solid state in dynamical mode. The
test could be considered as a fatigue testing in this range of
frequency.
3. Results and discussion
ð1Þ
3.1. Physical structure
Fig. 3 shows SEM images after cryogenic fractures of 30 wt.%
alfa/PP composite, 30 wt.% coir/PP composite and 30 wt.% ba-
gasse/PP composite. The good dispersion of fibers in the polymer
matrix is well exposed (Fig. 3a–c), and the surface morphology of
the alfa, coir and bagasse fibers are clear. Alfa, coir and bagasse fi-
bers are tubular with circular section. And an enlargement of single
fiber shows that each fiber was composed of microfibers (Fig. 3a0 –
38 F.Z. Arrakhiz et al. / Composites: Part B 47 (2013) 35–41

c0 ). The surface morphology of the three composites presents a re- strength values of coir/PP composite are higher than those mea-
duced number of pulled-out fibers which indicates a better affinity sured for alfa/PP and bagasse/PP composites. This can be explained
at fiber/polymer interface. Also, the fibers surface was fractured by the lower cellulose and higher lignin contents of coir fiber com-
which supported the previous explication. So, the polymer wets pared to alfa and bagasse fibers [11]. Table 1 summarizes the
perfectly the surface of fibers. This is a result of the alkali treatment chemical constituent percentages of the three fibers.
on the surface composition of the used fibers.
3.3. Flexural properties
3.2. Tensile properties
The flexural modulus and strength of the three chemically trea-
ted fibers reinforced PP composites are shown in Fig. 5a and b. For
Fig. 4a and b illustrate the effects of fiber content and neat PP on
all three composites, the addition of fibers increased the flexural
the tensile properties of a fiber polypropylene-based composite.
modulus of the composites with results depending on the fiber
Addition of any fiber to polypropylene, either alfa, coir or bagasse
type and loading. For composites using alfa fibers, the flexural
fibers, yield a composite material with a higher Young’s modulus
modulus is almost constant in the 5–20 wt.% fiber content region
compared to neat PP (Fig. 4a). For all type of fiber, a linear increase
and exhibits a sharp increase above these contents. Coir/PP and ba-
in the Young’s modulus with increasing fiber content is observed
gasse/PP composites both shows however a linear increase in mod-
[11]. This is due to the high fibers tensile modulus compared to
ulus with increasing fiber loading in agreement with what is
neat PP [31].
reported elsewhere [11,30]. The flexural modulus increased from
Fig. 4b shows the evolution of tensile strength for the compos-
a value of 1418 MPa for an unfilled matrix to a maximum value
ites as a function of fiber loading and fibers species (alfa, coir, or
of 2077.5 MPa for a 30 wt.% alfa fibers composite. Values of
bagasse). When compared to pure PP, the trend clearly shows a de-
1841 MPa and 2085.5 MPa have also been found for bagasse and
crease in tensile strength with increasing fiber loading. For all nat-
coir composites respectively. This corresponds to a 46.5%, 30%
ural fibers used in this work, the maximum tensile strength loss
and 47% increase in flexural modulus, respectively.
was found in composites having a 30 wt.% loading in fibers. Com-
This level of improvement in flexural modulus could be ex-
pared to pure PP, the losses measured in tensile strength are
plained by a good stress transfer from the low modulus PP to the
16.3% for the alfa/PP composite, 19.7% for a coir/PP composite,
high modulus treated fibers (Fig. 5a). A good interaction between
and 12.1% for the bagasse/PP composite. This behavior is quite
fibers and matrix under the compressive stresses developed in sec-
characteristic of short-fiber reinforced composites [32]. The tensile
tions of the specimen during bending also explain this increase in

Fig. 4. (a) Young’s modulus at various loading content for each fiber type. (b) Fig. 5. (a) Variation of flexural modulus with fiber loading. (b) Variation of flexural
Tensile strength at various loading for different fiber type. strength with fiber loading.
 F.Z. Arrakhiz et al. / Composites: Part B 47 (2013) 35–41 39

modulus [33]. Flexural strength, however, remain almost constant
for all composites containing between 5 wt.% and 30 wt.% in fibers.
This could be attributed to the good wetting of the treated fiber by
the PP matrix [11].
In every composite system there is an optimal fiber content
where both mechanical strength and modulus of composites are
at their maximum. This optimum is affected by various parameters
among which are the nature of fiber and matrix, the fiber aspect ra-
tio, the fiber–matrix interfacial adhesion, fiber agglomeration and
the processing technique [33].
The incorporation of 30 wt.% of alfa and coir or bagasse fibers
yielded the best mechanical properties in both flexural and Young’s

Fig. 6. (a) Torsion modulus of PP/Alfa fiber as a function of fiber content. (a0 ) Loss modulus factor of PP/Alfa fiber as a function of fiber content. (b) Torsion modulus of PP/coir
fiber as a function of fiber content. (b0 ) Loss modulus factor of PP/coir fiber as a function of fiber content. (c) Torsion modulus of PP/bagasse fiber as a function of fiber content.
(c0 ) Loss modulus factor of PP/bagasse fiber as a function of fiber content.
40 F.Z. Arrakhiz et al. / Composites: Part B 47 (2013) 35–41

modulus. At higher fiber loadings, the extruded composite is so Table 2

fluid that any further processing steps are hard to perform. b and Gf values for each composite at used strain frequencies.

0.1 Hz 1 Hz 10 Hz 40 Hz
3.4. Torsional properties Alfa/PP b 0.3189 0.2852 0.2800 0.2751
Gf 5.7862e+008 6.7015e+008 7.3627e+008 7.4979e+008
A strain sweep test was performed on the natural fiber compos- Sugarcane bagasse/ b 0.2523 0.2529
ites in order to establish the linear viscoelastic regime and to char- PP
acterize the strain dependent viscoelastic properties of the 0.2528 0.2517
samples, 0.002 was a chosen strain from this linear regime. After Gf 5.4992e+008 6.2578e+008 6.8575e+008 6.9868e+008

which a dynamic frequency sweep tests were performed using this Coir/PP b 0.2799 0.2580 0.2490 0.2468
strain amplitude of 0.002. The complex torsional modulus (G⁄) cal- Gf 5.6585e+008 6.4675e+008 7.0802e+008 7.1781e+008
culated using Eq. (2) below can be assimilated to the torsion mod-
ulus [26]:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Table 2 summarizes the b and Gf values calculated for the three
G ¼ G02 þ G002 ð2Þ types of fibers at various frequencies:
where G0 and G00 are respectively the storage and loss modulus mea- As we can see in Table 2, the decrease in b is less than 15%
sured by the rheometer. throughout the 0.1 to 40 Hz frequency range for each fiber type,
while a 15% difference is observed between alfa/PP and bagasse/
The torsion modulus plots at each frequency are similar, clearly
indicating that the added fibers rotated sufficiently during defor- PP composites. As the b value for the three fibers tested can be
averaged to 0.27 with little deviance (±0.02), this indicates nearly
mation as to be carrying part of the load [26,34]. The torsion mod-
ulus increased significantly with increasing frequency and fiber identical adhesion strength between fibers and polymer matrix
even if various types of fibers have been used. The chemical treat-
content to conclude that the composite behave torsion-wise like
an elastic solid. ment performed on the fibers yielded the same level of surface
modifications.
As seen in Fig. 6a–c, the complex modulus shows a modest in-
crease with increasing fiber loading until a threshold is reached, Semi-logarithmic plots of Loss factor and tan d vs. fiber content
after which the increase in complex modulus becomes very signif- (wt.%) are useful for comparing the properties of neat polymer to
icant. This solid-like behavior observed at low frequencies (0.1– those of fiber-filled systems.
40 Hz) can be attributed to a network build-up by percolating fi- The Loss factor is the relationship between the loss modulus
bers. The concentration threshold can be determined from Eq. and storage modulus and is given by the following equation [36]:
(3), this equation describes the Log/Log tend:
tan d ¼ G00 =G0 ð8Þ
Log G ¼ Log ub  Log ubc þ Log Gf ð3Þ
The loss modulus factor of the three composites is plotted ver-
From Eq. (3), G⁄ can be calculated as: sus fiber content and frequency (Fig. 6a–c).
 b It can be easily observed that the loss modulus G00 is slightly
u higher than the storage modulus G0 . This is a common situation
G ¼ Gf ð4Þ
uc in solid state as the elastic character of the material at room tem-
perature prevails over a viscous behavior.
These equations are valid when u 6 uc , where u is the natural
fiber content by weight and uc is the percolation threshold ob-
tained from Fig. 6a0 –c0 at different frequencies (14 wt.% for alfa,
4. Conclusion
9 wt.% for coir and 8 wt.% for bagasse). Gf is the torsion modulus
of the matrix as a function of the strain frequencies, b is the slope
In this paper, alfa, coir and bagasse fiber reinforced PP compos-
of the plot in logarithmic scale and is calculated for each frequency
ites were compounded and injected into test samples. Prior com-
according to the least squares method [35]:
pounding, the fibers were subjected to an alkali treatment
npt  b !2 (8 wt.% concentration) to remove waxes and other non-cellulosic
1X  ui
FðGf ; bÞ ¼ Gf 
 Gi ð5Þ components to increase their compatibility with the PP matrix.
2 i¼1 uc The chemically treated fibers composites yielded improved
mechanical properties compared to neat PP on the basis of their
where npt is the number of the experimental data.
tensile, flexural and torsional properties. A significant increase in
And b, Gf are calculated by minimizing the FðGf ; bÞ expression:
mechanical properties of composites is obtained with increasing fi-
8 npt   b  
> @F ðG ;bÞ X ber loading, reaching 75% increases from neat PP in tensile modu-
>
> ðaÞ  @bf ¼ Gf uui  Gi ui
>
< c uc ¼ 0 lus at 30 wt.% alfa reinforcement, while the flexural modulus
i¼1
npt     ð6Þ increased by 47% at 30 wt.% coir fibers reinforcement when com-
>
>  X  b b  
>
>
@FðG f
;bÞ
Gf uui  Gi Gf uui Log uui pared to neat PP. In fact, it is observed that composites with a
: ðbÞ  @b ¼
i¼1
c c c
30 wt.% fiber content shows the optimum set of mechanical prop-
erties, the fiber type having no effects. A numerical study was also
The Gf expression (Eq. (7)) is given from Eq. (6a). performed to model the torsion modulus of the three composites,
npt
X  b also, to predict the torsional modulus in the other frequencies
Gi uui and at higher fiber content.
c
i¼1
Gf ¼ npt  2b ð7Þ
X
Gi uui Acknowledgement
c
i¼1

And b can be found by using secant method from Eq. (6b). This work was supported by MAScIR; Moroccan Foundation for
The model was computed using Matlab software. Advanced Science, Innovation and Research.
 F.Z. Arrakhiz et al. / Composites: Part B 47 (2013) 35–41 41

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