The results obtained from dynamic mechanical analysis (Fig s. 1 and 2)
showed
that both the content and particle size of rice husk fiber affected the gelation temperature
of the composite system.
However,
the effect of
particle size wa
s more significant.
The
same gelation temperature was selected for composites with the same rice husk fiber
size
to
simplif
y
the processing procedure.
The temperatures corresponding to the maximum
values of tan
δ
were 140
°C
for MF
-
PP/RH
composites with 20
-
60 mesh rice husk
powder
, 150
°
C
for MF
-
PP/RH
composites with 60
-
90 mesh
rice husk powder
,
and 165
°
C
for MF
-
PP/RH
composites with 120
-
200 mesh rice husk powder
.
The curing time
s
of
composit
e
s
with different p
article size
s
and blend ratio
s
w
ere
measured by the isothermal
DMA method
. The isothermal cur
ing
temperature was set
at
the temperature
where
the
gelation
point
was
measured. The results
for
the
curing time
s
a
re listed in Table 2.