Sizing treatment of glass fiber has been shown to effectively improve fiber-matrix interfacial
adhesion whereas few studies have been conducted on the sizing treatment of
natural fibers. In this work, corn fiber was subjected to alkali and sizing treatments. The
treated corn fibers were used to prepare corn fiber reinforced polylactide (CF/PLA) composites
through mechanical mixing and injection molding. Fiber surface, tensile fracture
surface, mechanical properties and thermo-mechanical behavior of various CF/PLA composites
were characterized. SEM observation indicates better interfacial adhesion between
sizing-treated corn fiber and PLA, as compared to untreated and alkali-treated corn fibers,
due to the interfacial reactions at fiber-matrix interfaces. Sizing-treated CF/PLA composites
demonstrate improved mechanical properties and thermo-mechanical behavior as
compared to PLA composites containing untreated and alkali-treated corn fibers. It is
demonstrated that sizing treatment of corn fiber could be a potential and promising
method to produce high performance biocomposites.