Kenaf natural fibre is used as a sustainable form of material to reinforce polymeric composite. However, natural fibres usually do not perform as well as synthetic fibres. Silica nanoparticle is a material with high surface area and its high interfacial interaction with the matrix results in its improvement. In this research, silica nanoparticles were introduced into epoxy resin as a filler material to improve the mechanical properties of the kenaf-reinforced epoxy. They were dispersed into the epoxy using a homogeniser at 3000 rpm for 10 minutes. The composites were fabricated by spreading the silica filled epoxy evenly onto the kenaf mat before hot pressing the resin wet kenaf mat. The results show for flexural properties, composites with higher fibre and silica volume content generally had better properties with specimen 601 (60 vol% kenaf and1 vol% silica) having the highest strength at 68.9 MPa. Compressive properties were erratic with specimen 201 (20 vol% kenaf and 1 vol% silica) having the highest strength at 53.6 MPa.
There are many contributions from synthetic fibres in the world of industrial composites over the years.
However, they contain hazardous properties to humans causing irritation when exposed to the skin
and eye. Inhalation of fibrous synthetic can cause lung cancer with its deadly effects. There have been
studies and researches conducted on natural fibres to replace synthetic fibres as it is believed the latter
are more environmental-friendly and pose less health risks to humans. The aim of this study was to
investigate hoop tensile properties of the composite hollow shaft for different winding angles and PVC
reinforcement produced via the filament winding technique. For this purpose, split-disk tests (according
to ASTM D-2290 standard) were performed for the specimens produced with two different winding
angles such as 45o and 90o winding angle. By determining the hoop tensile strength and modulus of
these specimens, the effects of filament-winding processing parameter in winding angle were evaluated.
Experiments successfully showed that the mechanical properties such as tensile properties of kenaf yarn
fibre reinforced unsaturated polyester hollow tube at 90° and 45° winding angle with and without PVC.
The value was 15% for the different winding angles and 25% for the different winding angles with and
without PVC. The results indicate that 90° fibre winding angle kenaf yarn fibre unsaturated polyester with
PVC has the highest hoop tensile strength compared with other composite specimens. The experiments concluded that the orientation on fibre angle has
a significant impact on the hoop tensile strain,
hoop tensile modulus and hoop tensile strength
properties.
Modification of thermoplastic starch with other natural polymer is a promising research since the
combination of both material will produce a fully green polymer with modified properties. The aim of
this paper is to investigate the effects of agar on physical properties of thermoplastic sugar palm starch
(SPS). Various types of thermoplasctic SPS based polymer were prepared by blending SPS and agar
with the presence of glycerol as a plasticiser. Agar with various contents (10, 20, 30, and 40 wt%) were
mixed with thermoplastic SPS via melt mixing before compression moulded into 3 mm mould plate.
The prepared laminates were characterised for the moisture content, density, water absorption, thickness
swelling and water solubility. Results showed that incorporation of agar has slightly increased the moisture
content and water absorption capacity of the blends. Slight increment in thickness swelling was observed
for thermoplastic SPS after incorporation with agar (40 wt%). Water solubility of thermoplastic SPS
was slightly increased with incorporation of agar (40 wt%). Similar density was recorded for all ratios
of agar, which indicated that the incorporation of agar did not influence the density of thermoplastic
SPS. In conclusion, the incorporation of agar has
slightly increased the hydrophilic behaviour of
thermoplastic SPS.