Influence of alkaline treatment and fiber loading on the physical and mechanical properties of kenaf/polypropylene composites for variety of applications

By M. Akhtar, Abu Bakar Sulong, M. K. F. Radzi, N. Ismail, M. Raza, Norhamidi Muhamad, M. A. Khan. 2016

181 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Due to current trend and increasing interest towards natural based fiber products, Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) fibers have been used for the developments of many products. Therefore, Kenaf fiber-reinforced composites have been widely used in engineering and industrial applications. The present work deals with the fabricating and characterization of untreated and treated kenaf/polypropylene (PP)-reinforced composites. Composites of PP reinforced with treated and untreated kenaf fibers were fabricated using the injection molding technique. Different fiber loadings of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 wt% treated and untreated kenaf composites were also prepared. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) were performed on the treated, untreated kenaf fibers and kenaf/PP composites. Moreover, the alkaline-treated kenaf composites exhibit better physical, morphological, and mechanical properties because of the compatibility of kenaf with PP. However, variations in tensile and flexural properties depend on treatment and kenaf fiber contents. The percentage increase in the mechanical properties of the treated kenaf/PP composites relative to that of PP was also measured. In addition, 40 wt% kenaf fiber loading resulted in higher mechanical properties. By contrast, kenaf/PP composite with 50% fiber loading was not successfully prepared because of improper mixing and the burning of kenaf fibers in the PP matrix. To conclude, 40% kenaf/PP composites with superior physical and mechanical properties may be used in variety of applications such as automotive, sports, construction, animal bedding, and mass production industries.

Subfields: Mechanical Engineering, Polymers and Plastics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2a52e786000b972e6a09332518121c8705bfeb60

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Citations in the corpus

• The challenges of natural fiber in manufacturing, material selection, and technology application: A review (2018, background): “Inorganic natural fiber can be found in some minerals, such as asbestos.(8) Several of the significant fibers used in the strengthening of natural fiber composites, with their classes and roots, are listed in Table 1.”