Effect of colorants on interfacial compatibility in wood flour/Poly (β-hydroxybutyrate valerate) composites

Abstract To investigate the effect of three kinds of colorants on interfacial compatibility between wood and polymer in wood flour/Poly (β-hydroxybutyrate valerate) (PHBV) composites, three colorants are added to color the poplar wood flour/PHBV composites. The effects of the colorant on the interfacial compatibility of the wood plastic composites (WPCs) are studied. The result shows that the mechanical properties of the WPCs tend to increase first and then decrease with increasing colorant. The SEM micrographs of the WPCs show the surface, partially the cracks and grooves of the wood fiber are coated by the dispersed colorant. There are basically no new characteristic peaks in FT-IR spectra, which is proved that three colorants can only enable wood flour to be fully mixed with PHBV. Three colorants can improve the compatibility of wood fiber and PHBV, the mechanical properties of the WPCs, which is significantly increased compared to the WPCs without colorants.