No abstract

The effect of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fiber size on the fracture toughness of OPEFB/PP/PPnanoclay composites was investigated. Four fiber sizes ranging from 180 μm, 250 μm, 300 μm, and 355 μm were used to reinforce PP/PPnanoclay composites. The ratio of PP/PPnanoclay was 7:100 by weight (7 phr). Fracture toughness of the composite was determined according to ASTM D5045 and single edge notch bending (SENB) been employed during the test. The result indicates that the fracture toughness of OPEFB/PP/PPnanoclay composites has decreased as OPEFB fiber size increased. Fracture surfaces investigated through the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the bonding between fiber and matrix for OPEFB/PP/PPnanoclay composites with smaller OPEFB fibre size has better bonding as compared to OPEFB/PP/PPnanoclay composites with larger OPEFB fiber size.

The principal aim of this project was to achieve a better understanding of the various parameters that contribute to the tensile properties. These parameters were manipulated in order to improve and produced PPnanoclay/ Polypropylene (PP) reinforced oil palm empty fruit bunch composite material (OPEFB). OPEFB fibre was treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in order to improve the tensile properties of the composites. Thus, in this study the oil palm empty fruit bunch fibres were used as a filler and PPnanoclay/ PP composite as the matrix material. Tensile test was used to assess the effect on the tensile strength and tensile modulus of OPEFB/PPnanoclay/PP composites. Morphologies of the composites were examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The average tensile properties obtained were tensile strength 22 MPa at 180 µm and Young’s modulus 2120 MPa at 355 µm treated.

Two different clay loadings were added to OPEFB/PP/MAPP which was 7 phr and 10 phr in order to see its effect on the fracture toughness. Standard dimension of samples was prepared for 180 μm, 355 μm and 355 μm treated with 1% NaOH. The result showed that 7 phr clay contents had the highest fracture toughness of 1.16 MPa.m1/2. Alkali treatment on OPEFB fiber gave 7% improvement of fracture toughness for samples with 7 phr PPnanoclay loading. SEM images show the improvement of bonding between the fibers and the matrix upon alkali treatment.