An investigation on structural properties of jute particle doped polypropylene filaments

The production process and structural characterization of jute particle doped polypropylene filaments were considered in this paper. Prior to compounding, surface modification of jute was also carried out with alkali, silane coupling agent, fluorocarbon based agent and also argon plasma. Modified jute particles and maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene as a compatibilizer were incorporated into polypropylene in a twin-screw extruder and then master-batches were converted to polypropylene multi-filaments in lab-scale melt spinning machine. 100% polypropylene and composite multi-filaments were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, thermo-gravimetric analyzer, differential scanning calorimeter, and X-Ray diffractometer. Fiber tensile tests and moisture contents were also studied. Distributions of fillers along the composite filaments were detected by fluorescence microscopy. The analyses showed the addition of both modified jute particles and MAPP had no significant effects on crystallographic structure of the polypropylene due to the low content fillers. On the other hand, the presence of fillers caused an increment in the moisture absorption of the composite filaments. TGA analysis also pointed out that the polypropylene filaments achieved the maximum moisture absorption with the addition of alkali treated jute particles.