Influence of retting process on the thermal and mechanical properties of flax/polypropylene composites made of canadian oilseed flax fibers

Flax fibers are more and more used as reinforcing materials for composites in the field of material research because of their good mechanical properties, low abrasion, environmental friendliness and low cost. In this study, two kinds of Canadian oilseed flax fibers, dew-retted (F1) and enzyme-retted flax fibers (F2) were used as reinforcing material for flax/PP composites to investigate the influence of retting process on the composite properties Crystallization behavior, thermal stability and mechanical property of flax fiber reinforced PP composites were characterized in detail. It was shown that enzyme-retted flax with higher retting degree could lead to composites with better thermal and mechanical properties than dew-retted flax. PP composite reinforced with F2 presented 73% and 43% of tensile modulus and impact strenght higher than that of pure PP, respectively. In addtion, its tensile and flexural strengh were at least 35% higher than those of F1 reinforced PP composites.La fibre de lin est de plus en plus utilis\ue9e comme mat\ue9riau de renforcement en recherche sur les mat\ue9riaux, compte tenu de ses bonnes propri\ue9t\ue9s m\ue9caniques, de sa faible abrasion, de son caract\ue8re \ue9cologique et de son faible co\ufbt. Dans la pr\ue9sente \ue9tude, deux types de fibres de lin ol\ue9agineux canadien \u2013 \ue0 savoir les fibres rouies \ue0 la ros\ue9e (F1) et les fibres rouies aux enzymes (F2) \u2013 sont utilis\ue9s comme mat\ue9riaux de renforcement dans des composites lin/polypropyl\ue8ne (PP) pour \ue9tudier l\u2019influence du processus de rouissage sur les propri\ue9t\ue9s des composites. Le comportement de la cristallisation, la stabilit\ue9 thermique et la propri\ue9t\ue9 m\ue9canique des composites de PP renforc\ue9s de fibres de lin font l\u2019objet d\u2019une caract\ue9risation d\ue9taill\ue9e. Les r\ue9sultats montrent que le lin roui aux enzymes \ue0 un degr\ue9 plus \ue9lev\ue9 de rouissage produit des composites dont les propri\ue9t\ue9s thermiques et m\ue9caniques sont sup\ue9rieures \ue0 celles du lin roui \ue0 la ros\ue9e. Le composite de PP renforc\ue9 de F2 pr\ue9sente un module d\u2019\ue9lasticit\ue9 et une r\ue9sistance au choc de 73 % et de 43 % sup\ue9rieurs au PP pur, respectivement. De plus, sa r\ue9sistance \ue0 la traction et sa r\ue9sistance \ue0 la flexion sont sup\ue9rieures d\u2019au moins 35 % \ue0 celles du composite de PP renforc\ue9 de F1.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye