Enhanced the weatherability of bamboo fiber-based outdoor building decoration materials by rutile nano-TiO2

This paper analyzes the impact of rutile nano-titanium dioxide (nano-TiO 2 ) on the weatherability of bamboo fiber/high-density polyethylene (HDPE) composites using xenon-arc weathering accelerated tests. The results showed that a series of performance reduction containing color fading, surface cracking, structural transformations and loss of mechanical properties appeared on the composites during the accelerated weathering process. These attributes could be minimized to a greater extent using rutile nano-TiO 2 . The analysis revealed that, although free-radicals created by nano-TiO 2 after absorbed UV light may resulted in the oxidization of bamboo fiber and HDPE , rutile nano-TiO 2 mainly acted as light screening agent and ultraviolet absorbent, which retarded the photo-oxidative of the composites. Moreover, rutile nano-TiO 2 enhanced the thermal stability by interacting with the molecular chain of bamboo fiber and HDPE which resulted into reduced thermo-oxidative aging of composites.