SYNTHESIS OF EVAgMA AND ITS EFFECTS ON TENSILE PROPERTIES AND MORPHOLOGY OF ETHYLENE VINYL ACETATE COPOLYMER/BAMBOO FLOUR AND POLYPROPYLENE/ BAMBOO FLOUR COMPOSITES

Thermoplastic composites reinforced with natural fillers (WPCs) have being attracted many attentions in recent years. The biggest challenges for WPCs production have to face is the poor adhesion and interaction between the components in the composites. This study investigates the technique to overcome these challenges without the treatment and surface modification of natural additive fillers. The obtained experimental results showed that using maleic anhydride grafted ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVAgMA) with 1.16 wt.% of MA could enhance the adhesion and interaction of bamboo flour (BF) with EVA and polypropylene (PP) matrices. These expressed through the improvement of tensile properties and mophological structure of EVA/BF composite and PP/BF composite with the presence of EVAgMA. Tensile strength of EVA/BF and PP/BF composites at the same 50 wt% of BF, increased 67 and 12%, respectively when EVAgMA was introduced.