In this study, the interactions of α-tocopherol (α-TOH) in PVOH-starch blends were investigated. α-TOH is an interacting agent possesses a unique molecule of polar chroman "head" and non-polar phytyl "tail" which can improve surface interaction of PVOH and starch. It showed favorable results when blending PVOH-starch with α-TOH, where the highest tensile strengths were achieved at 60 wt.% PVOH-starch blend for 1 phr α-TOH and 50 wt.% for 3 phr α-TOH, respectively. This due to the formation of miscible PVOH-starch as resulted by the compatibilizing effect of α-TOH. Moreover, the enthalpy of melting (ΔHm) of 60 wt.% PVOH-starch and 50 wt.% PVOH-starch added with 1 and 3 phr α-TOH respectively were higher than ΔHm of the neat PVOH-starch blends. The thermogravimetry analysis also showed that α-TOH can be used as thermal stabilizer to reduce weight losses at elevated temperature. The surface morphologies of the compatible blends formed large portion of continuous phase where the starch granules interacted well with α-TOH by acting as compatilizer to reduce surface energy of starch for embedment into PVOH matrix.
In this study, water at high temperatures (150, 175, 200 °C) and in a vacuum state (-0.1 MPa) was applied to graphite nanosheets to enhance surface activity to promote the formation of oxygen-containing functional groups through supercritical water treatment. Nylon 610 nanocomposites (with treated or untreated nanosheets as nanofillers) were then synthesized using interfacial polymerization. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the water treatment did not alter the crystal structure of the carbon nanosheets. Additionally, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis showed the presence of amide peaks within the nanocomposites, indicating the presence of hydrogen bonding between the nanosheets and the polymer matrix. The intensity of the amide peaks was higher for nanocomposites combined with treated nanosheets than untreated ones. This hydrogen bonding is beneficial to the conductivity of the nanocomposites. The conductivity of treated nanosheets/nylon nanocomposites generally decreased with increasing wt%, while the conductivity of untreated nanosheets/nylon nanocomposites increased with increasing wt%. The decrementing of conductivity in the treated nanosheets/nylon nanocomposites is due to the agglomeration of the nanosheets within the composite. This is in in line with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results which showed that at higher wt%, the aggregation condition tended to occur. The highest conductivity obtained is 0.004135 S/m, as compared to the conductivity of neat nylon 610, which is 10-14 S/m. This improvement in electrical properties can be attributed to the intact structure of the nanosheets and the interaction between the nanofillers and the nylon 610 matrix. The optimum nylon 610 nanocomposite synthesized was the one incorporated with 0.5 wt% graphite nanosheets treated at 200 °C and -0.1 MPa, which possess the highest conductivity.
This study investigates the thermal effect of supercritical water treatment at different temperatures (150, 175, 200 °C) and semi-vacuum state (-0.08 MPa) on graphite flakes which are then incorporated into nylon 610. The treatment is deemed to increase the surface activity of nanofillers through the formation of oxygen-containing functional groups. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated that the crystal structure of the flakes remained similar before and after supercritical water treatment. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) also showed the presence of hydrogen bonding between the flakes and the polymer matrix through the appearance of amide bands. The intensity of the amide peaks is higher for nanocomposites with treated flakes than untreated ones. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that at higher wt%, aggregation will occur, which leads to a weakening in physical properties. The tensile strength of nanocomposites with treated flakes decreased with increasing wt%, while those with untreated flakes increased with increasing wt%. Young's modulus of all the nanocomposites generally increased with increasing wt%. The highest tensile strength obtained is 967.02 kPa, while that of neat nylon 610 is 492.09 kPa. This enhancement in mechanical properties can be attributed to the intact structure of the graphite flakes and the interaction between the flakes and the nylon 610 matrix. A higher temperature of water treatment was discovered to cause higher oxidation levels on surface of the nanofillers but would result in some structural damage. The optimum nylon 610 nanocomposite synthesized was the one that was incorporated with 1.5 wt% graphite flakes treated at 150 °C and -0.08 MPa, as it has the highest tensile strength.
This study was aimed to investigate the production of methane gas from three different types of food waste (vegetables waste, fruit waste and grain waste) using batch type anaerobic digestion method. The digestion process was conducted by using temperature range of 27 to 36 degrees C and pH 6.5 to 7.5 to yield an optimum condition for the digestion process. The digestion was continued for a period of two weeks with the aid of cow dung as the inoculums. It was found that the grain waste yielded the highest methane 2546 mL due to the high content of carbohydrate. At the mean time, the fruit waste produced the second highest methane gas with 2000 mL as well as the vegetable waste generated the lowest methane gas with volume of 1468 mL. The vegetable waste produced the lowest methane gas because the vegetables waste contains high fibres and cellulose walls but low in glucose amount. For the fertilization test, fruit waste demonstrated the best observation for the growth of plant due to high content of potassium and followed by vegetable waste. The least effective fertilizer was grain waste due to less content of nutrients essential for plants growth.
This work was conducted to investigate the effect of carbon nanotube (CNT) on the mechanical-physico properties of the electron beam irradiated polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) blends. The increasing of CNT amount up to 1.5 part per hundred resin (phr) has gradually improved tensile strength and Young's modulus of PVOH/CNT nanocomposites due to effective interlocking effect of CNT particles in PVOH matrix, as evident in SEM observation. However, further increments of CNT, amounting up to 2 phr, has significantly decreased the tensile strength and Young's modulus of PVOH/CNT nanocomposits due to the CNT agglomeration at higher loading level. Irradiation was found to effectively improve the tensile strength of PVOH/CNT nanocomposites by inducing the interfacial adhesion effect between CNT particles and PVOH matrix. This was further verified by the decrement values of d-spacing of the deflection peak. The increasing of CNT amounts from 0.5 phr to 1 phr has marginally induced the wavenumber of O-H stretching, which indicates the weakening of hydrogen bonding in PVOH matrix. However, further increase in CNT amounts up to 2 phr was observed to reduce the wavenumber of O-H stretching due to poor interaction effect between CNT and PVOH matrix. Electron beam irradiation was found to induce the melting temperature of all PVOH/CNT nanocomposite by inducing the crosslinked networks.