A Study on Polypropylene and Surface Modified PET Fiber Composites

We confirmed that poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fiber had the possibility to improve the mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP) by fabricating PP/PET fiber composites because PET enhanced mechanical properties and higher melting temperature than PP. But lower compatibility of between PP and PET fibers induced poor mechanical properties of PP/PET fiber composites in spite of incorporating PP-g-MAH as compatibilizer. To solve these problems of PP/PET fiber composites, we carried out a surface treatment on PET fiber using NaOH solution and prepared PP/PET fiber composites with good mechanical properties by adding PP-g-MAH as a compatibilizer. Then the behavior of the mechanical properties was correlated with the results obtained from SEM and IR spectroscopy.