Investigation of thermal and mechanical properties of micro crystalline cellulose based composites

Abstract

This research work is based on the investigation of mechanical and thermal properties of micro crystalline cellulose (MCC) based polypropylene (PP) composites. MCC was surface modified by coconut oil to increase the compatibility between MCC and PP. One to five percents of unmodified MCC and modified MCC were mixed with PP to prepare composites. Mechanical, physical and thermal properties were investigated by tensile test, hardness test, water absorption test, VST test, thermal stability test with different MCC compositions. Tensile strength and tensile modulus variation of developed composite was predicted by using a modified Halpin-Tsai model.