Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Zabihzadeh, S. M.
Right arrow Articles by Sepidehdam, S. M. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Article

Influence of Fungal Decay on Physico-Mechanical Properties of a Commercial Extruded Bagasse/pp Composite

S. M. Zabihzadeh1*, S. K. Hosseini Hashemi2, H. Mehregan Nikoo2, and S. M. J. Sepidehdam2

1 Faculty of Natural Resources, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Mazandaran, Iran
2 Department of Wood and Paper Science and Technology, Karaj Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: majid_zabihzadeh{at}yahoo.com.


  Abstract

To evaluate the effect of fungal decay on the physico-mechanical properties of natural composites, a commercial extruded bagasse/polypropylene composite from a manufacturer was sampled. Weight loss, long-term water absorption, flexural modulus, flexural strength, and unnotched impact strength were determined after incubation with white and brown rot fungi for 14 weeks. Results indicated higher water absorption for all incubated samples. However, the water absorption capacity of brown-rotted samples was significantly higher than that of white rotted ones. The brown rot fungus caused more weight loss than the white rot fungus. Modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity declined after incubation with fungi. The brown rot fungus generally caused a greater reduction in flexural strength than did the white rot fungus. Fungal decay had no significant influence on unnotched impact strength.

First published on October 14, 2009
Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 2009, doi:10.1177/0731684409340596
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?