Jute Reinforced Polypropylene Composite: Effect of Surface Pretreatment by Photocuring with Acrylic Monomers

Jute fiber (hessian cloth) reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites were prepared by compression molding. The composite fabrication temperature, pressure and time were 190 degrees C, 4 tons and 5 min, respectively. The jute content, in the composites was studied over mechanical properties and it was observed that the highest TS (70 MPa), BS (75 MPa) and bending-E-modulus (2.35 GPa) were produced by 60% jute content, but Young's modulus was found to be the highest (1.95 GPa) at 38% jute content. To further improve the mechanical properties and interfacial adhesion behavior between jute and polypropylene, hessian cloth was pretreated with acrylic monomers, e. g., 1,4-butanediol diacrylate (BDDA), ethyl hexyl acrylate (EHA) and trypropylene glycol diacrylate (TPGDA) at different concentrations using 2% photoinitiator (Darocur-1116) under UV radiation of various intensities. Among all the monomers BDDA showed the best performance. The highest TS (90 MPa), BS (95 MPa), Young's modulus (2.2 GPa) and bending-E-modulus (3.2 GPa) of the composite were obtained when hessian cloth was cured by soaking it for 10 min in a solution containing 3% BDDA, 2% photoinitiator in methanol, followed by exposure to six passes of UV radiation. Under this condition polymer loading (PL) of photocured hessian cloth was 14%.