Characterization of chemically treated jute fiber reinforced polyethylene clay nanocomposites as a function of treatment methods

The hydrophilic nature of natural fibers unfavorably affects adhesion with a hydrophobic matrix which cause loss of strength. In order to reduce hydrophilicity and remove non cellulosic constituents to enhance the interfacial interaction with the polymer matrices, the jute fibers (Corchorus olitorius) were chemically treated with benzenediazonium salt (BDS), propionic anhydride (PA), and 3-isocyanatopropyltriethoxy silane. Jute fibers (raw and treated), polyethylene (PE) granules and different types of montmorillonites (MMT) were mixed thoroughly in different weight fractions for the manufacturing of nanocomposites. The effect of chemical treatments and montmorillonite addition on the improvement of different properties of silane treated jute fiber reinforced polyethylene/clay nanocomposites have been investigated. Tensile tests (tensile strength and tensile modulus), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis, water absorption, and chemical absorption test were used to evaluate the mechanical, microstructural, and physico-chemical absorption characterizations of the prepared composites. It has been observed that the optimum fiber loading was 15 wt.%. Treated jute composites showed higher improvement in all of the mentioned properties than raw jute composite and silane treated jute composite found highest improvement. Nanoclay loaded composites showed higher improvement than composite without nanocJay and 2 wt.% MMT nanoclay loaded nanocomposites showed highest values in different properties. On the other hand, MMT-1.3IPS nanoclay loaded nanocomposite exhibited highest improvement among five types of MMT nanoclay loaded nanocomposites used in this study. The fabricated nanocomposites were resistant to all chemicals used except carbon tetrachloride (CCl.). All the mentioned properties of the nanocomposites were improved due to chemical treatment of fibers and further addition of nanoclay