Publications by authors named "Birm-June Kim"

Polylactic acid (PLA)/polybutylene succinate (PBS)/wood flour (WF) biocomposites were fabricated by in situ reactive extrusion with coupling agents. Methylenediphenyl 4,4'-diisocyanate (MDI) and maleic anhydride (MA) were used as coupling agents. To evaluate the effects of MDI and MA, various properties (i.

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The effect of individual and combined talc and glass fibers (GFs) on mechanical and thermal expansion performance of the filled high density polyethylene (HDPE) composites was studied. Several published models were adapted to fit the measured tensile modulus and strength of various composite systems. It was shown that the use of silane-modified GFs had a much larger effect in improving mechanical properties and in reducing linear coefficient of thermal expansion (LCTE) values of filled composites, compared with the use of un-modified talc particles due to enhanced bonding to the matrix, larger aspect ratio, and fiber alignment for GFs.

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