Abstract
In this work forestry waste natural Napier grass fibers were extracted from stems by water retting process. Polycarbonate coating of theses fibers was done by solvent casting method. Three surface treatment systems were used to improve the Napier grass fiber-polycarbonate interfacial bonding as follows: alkali, silane and a combination of alkaline and silane treatments. The effect of chemical treatments of fibers on tensile properties of the coated fibers was studied. The tensile properties of the coated fibers with surface modified fibers were found to be higher than those with unmodified and uncoated fibers. This is due to an improvement in the interfacial bonding between the surface modified Napier grass fiber and polycarbonate. The moisture absorption of the polycarbonate-coated fibers was lower than that of unmodified and uncoated fibers. Morphological analysis was carried out to observe interfacial bonding of the samples using scanning electron microscope.