This study is focused on the behaviour of fired-clay brick from the area around Beruas (Malaysia) that is known for it brick industries. The firing temperatures were set from 800°C to 1250°C and soaking time was fixed for an hour. The effects of firing temperature on the phase changes, microstructure, compressive strength, water absorption and porosity of the bricks were investigated. Test results indicate that the optimum firing temperature was found to be 1200°C. The percentage of porosity significantly reduces from 39.33% to 5.87% when sintered from 1000°C to 1250°C. Bricks sintered at 1200°C exhibited the highest strength of 89.5 N/mm2. The effect of firing temperature significantly improved the microstructure in terms of porosity and the quality of physical properties of fired-clay bricks

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Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) nanocomposite films were utilized for different applications, such as packaging, drug recover and other applications. The incorporation of plasticizer into polymer nanocomposites modifies some of their functional and physical properties, such as increasing flexibility, moisture sensitivity, in addition to other functional properties. However, the effects of Polyethylen glycol (PEG) and sesame oil (SO) on selected physical properties (moisture content (MC), contact angle (CA) and water vapor permeability (WVP)) of PLA)/HNTs bionanocomposite films were examined. The plasticized PLA/HNTs (5 wt % HNTs loading) bionanocomposite films were prepared using the solution casting method at room temperature. The concentrations of each plasticizer that used indivisually were (0, 10, 20 and 30 wt %). Results show that the increasing of PEG content led to increase in moisture content and water vapor permeability and decrease in contact angle of the films. On the contrary, the increasing of SO levels led to decrease in moisture content and water vapor permeability and increase in contact angle of the films. Differences in measured physical properties of films with plasticizer type and concentration may be attributed to differences in the hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties of the plasticizers. SO was the plasticizer that showed the most interested effect (low moisture content and water vapor permeability) on PLA/HNTs films for food packaging applications compared to PEG.

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