Improvement in the adhesion of bamboo fiber reinforced polylactide composites

Polylactide composites containing bamboo fiber treated with various coupling agents were prepared using melt compounding. 3aminopropyltriethoxysilane, vinyltrimethoxysilane, maleic anhydride, and acrylic acid were used as the coupling agents to improve the mechanical properties of polylactide and bamboo fiber composites. In addition, to investigate the effect of fiber diameter on mechanical properties, either split bamboo fiber or fibrillar bamboo fiber was used as reinforcement. The composites containing split bamboo fiber treated with 3aminopropyltriethoxysilane and acrylic acid exhibited the highest tensile strength of all composites prepared. In addition, the composites containing fibrillar bamboo fiber showed a marked improvement in tensile strength. To investigate the biodegradability of the composites, an enzymatic degradation test was performed using Proteinase K, a commonly used enzyme for polylactide degradation. All the polylactide composites containing bamboo fiber, regardless of which coupling agent was applied, showed a similar trend in enzymatic degradation to that of neat polylactide.