Affiliations 

  • 1 Centre of Advanced Engineering Materials and Composites Research, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM, Serdang 43400, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Manufacturing and Material Engineering, Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 50728, Malaysia
Polymers (Basel), 2021 Aug 31;13(17).
PMID: 34503001 DOI: 10.3390/polym13172961

Abstract

This research was performed to evaluate the mechanical and thermal properties of sugar palm fiber (SPF)- and kenaf fiber (KF)-reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites. Sugar palm/kenaf was successfully treated by benzoylation treatment. The hybridized bio-composites (PP/SPF/KF) were fabricated with overall 10 weight percentage (wt%) relatively with three different fibers ratios between sugar palm-treated and kenaf-treated (7:3, 5:5, 3:7) and vice versa. The investigations of thermal stability were then carried out by using diffraction scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA). The result of a flammability test showed that the treated hybrid composite (PP/SPF/KF) was the specimen that exhibited the best flammability properties, having the lowest average burning rate of 28 mm/min. The stiffness storage modulus (E'), loss modulus (E"), and damping factor (Tan δ) were examined by using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). The hybrid composite with the best ratio (PP/SPF/KF), T-SP5K5, showed a loss modulus (E") of 86.2 MPa and a damping factor of 0.058. In addition, thermomechanical analysis (TMA) of the studies of the dimension coefficient (µm) against temperature were successfully recorded, with T-SP5K5 achieving the highest dimensional coefficient of 30.11 µm at 105 °C.

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