Effect of chemical structure of silane coupling agent on interface adhesion properties of syndiotactic polypropylene/cellulose composite

To improve interaction between syndiotactic polypropylene (SPP) and fibrous cellulose (FC), effects of chemical structure of silane coupling agent on the reactivity for the surface hydroxyl group on the FC were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement. Among the three kinds of the silane coupling agent, the 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) showed the highest reactivity with the surface hydroxyl group on the FC, and the linear silane compound with methoxyl group was found to be suitable for the reaction. Although the morphology of the SPP/FC composite is hardly affected by the difference in the kinds of the silane coupling agent, the tensile properties were considerably different. In particular, in the case of using higher silane coupling agent solution (over 3 wt %), the chemical structure of silane coupling agent certainly affected the tensile properties of the SPP/silanized FC composite. It was found that the tensile properties were distinctly affected by the reactivity between the surface hydroxyl group on FC and the silane coupling agent. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011