Affiliations 

  • 1 Advanced Engineering Materials and Composites Research Centre (AEMC), Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Advanced Engineering Materials and Composites Research Centre (AEMC), Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Institute of Energy Infrastructure (IEI), Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, Kajang 43000, Malaysia. Electronic address: sapuan@upm.edu.my
  • 3 Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ION2), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia; Center of Excellence in Catalysis for Bioenergy and Renewable Chemicals (CBRC), Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
  • 4 Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia; Centre for Advanced Composite Materials, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Int J Biol Macromol, 2024 Sep 02.
PMID: 39227276 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.134421

Abstract

In this study, significant improvements in mechanical properties have been seen through the efficient inclusion of Oil Palm Cellulose Nanofibrils (CNF) as nano-fillers into green polymer matrices produced from biomass with a 28 % carbon content. The goal of the research was to make green epoxy nanocomposites utilizing solution blending process with acetone as the solvent with the different CNF loadings (0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 wt%). An ultrasonic bath was used in conjunction with mechanical stirring to guarantee that CNF was effectively dispersed throughout the green epoxy. The resultant nanocomposites underwent thorough evaluation, comparing them to unfilled green epoxy and evaluating their morphological, mechanical, and thermal behavior using a variety of instruments. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) was used to validate findings, which showed that the CNF were dispersed optimally inside the nanocomposites. The thermal degradation temperature (Td) of the nanocomposites showed a marginal decrement of 0.8 % in temperatures (from 348 °C to 345 °C), between unfilled green epoxy (neat) and 0.1 wt% of CNF loading. The mechanical test results, which showed a 13.3 % improvement in hardness and a 6.45 % rise in tensile strength when compared to unfilled green epoxy, were in line with previously published research. Overall, the outcomes showed that green nanocomposites have significantly improved in performance.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.