Effect of water environment on jute/polypropylene composites

This study investigates the effects of water immersion on tensile properties of jute fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites. The long fiber type jute/PP pellet and neat PP pellet were used as materials and the jute/PP specimens with different fiber content were prepared by injection molding with dry-blending of jute/PP and neat PP pellets. All the specimens were aged in hot distilled water at 80 C, and after the fixed periods of immersion, the weight changes and the tensile properties were measured. The weight gain by water absorption was significantly affected by the fiber content. The specimens with the jute fiber content of 30 wt% more easily absorbed water and it reached more than 10%. In these specimens, significant material loss by immersion also occurred. The tensile strength after immersion decreased remarkably in the specimens with the jute fiber content of 30 wt% and more, and all the jute/PP composites showed lower strength than neat PP after immersion of 1000 h.