The preparation and performance analysis of chemical-treated maize straw fibers and Its high-performance polypropylene/chemical-treated maize straw fibers/maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene/silane coupling agent composites

In recent years, there has been an increasing industrial interest in maize straws. In this work, chemical-treated fibers (CTF) were fabricated based on wasted maize straws by chemical treatment combined with stirring. The experimental results suggest that a part of lignin in CTF was removed after chemical treatment, which resulted in the smooth surface morphology, better thermal stability, and even higher degree of crystallinity of CTF. Furthermore, the CTF were used to composite with polypropylene (PP). With the addition of PP-g-MAH and silane coupling agent (SCA), the compatibility between CTF and PP was improved and thus the mechanical performance of PP composites was also improved. At the same time, the tensile strength (54.9 +/- 5.4 MPa), Young's modulus (1950 +/- 246 MPa), specific strength (49.4 +/- 3.9 MPa g-1 cm3) and impact strength (3.6 +/- 0.3 kJ/m2) of the PP/CTF/PP-g-MAH/SCA (50/50/6/0.95) composite was increased by about 51%, 177%, 20%, and 113% relative to pure PP, respectively. In conclusion, transforming the wasted maize straws into CTF is an effective way to reduce environmental pollution and meet the growing global demand for energy-saving materials. In this work, maize straws are transformed into fibers by chemical treatment. This kind of chemical-treated fibers (CTF) can be used to improve the mechanical performance of polymers, like polypropylene. In other words, the CTF can expand the application range and promote the utilization of wasted maize straws, as well as be benefit for the reduction of environmental pollution.image