'Characterization and Treatments ofPineapple Leaf Fibre Thermoplastic Composite for Construction Application'


Abstract


Keywords: Pineapple leaf fibre; characterization; treatments;polypropylene; composites; construction


In recent years natural fibres appearto be the outstanding materials which come as the viable and abundant substitutefor the expensive and nonrenewable synthetic fibre. Natural fibres like sisal,banana, jute, oil plam, kenaf and coir has been used as reinforcement inthermoplastic composite for applications in consumer goods, furniture, low costhousing and civil structures. Pineapple leaf fibre (PALF) is one of them thathave also good potential as reinforcement in thermoplastic composite. It is theobjective of the current research to characterize PALF and to investigate theeffect of fibre treatment on the mechanical properties of PALF reinforced polypropylene (PP) composite. PALF was prepared from raw pineapple leaf. It was then chemically treatedto hinder the water content. Both PP and PALF were compounded using tworollmill machine prior to compression moulding via hot press machine to form a sheet.After forming the composite sheet, samples were prepared for tensile test (ASTMD638), flexural test (ASTM D790) and impact test (ASTM D256). Scanning ElectronMicroscope (SEM) was used to investigate the miscibility between the fibre andmatrix. It was found that PALF contain 87.56% holocellulose, 78.11% alphacellulose, 9.45% hemicellulose and 4.78 % lignin. The chemical constituentsobtained were in the range to data reported in literatures. It was alsoobserved that the flexural modulus and strength of treated PALF reinforced PPcomposite increased linearly with increment of fibre loadings. This trend wassimilar for impact strength where it exhibited a slight reduction at theinitial stage but increased later as the fibre loading increased. The study hasdemonstrated that the optimum fibre loading for the best performance of thecomposite achieved was 30 wt%. This was clarified further by SEM where fibresand matrix have shown better miscibility at 30 wt% of treated PALF.



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