Chapter 7 - Mechanical Testing of Sugar Palm Fiber Reinforced Sugar Palm Biopolymer Composites

Abstract

Natural fibers are used as reinforcing materials in polymer composites due to some advantages such as renewable, low cost, environmentally friendly nature, and “good” strength and stiffness properties. Tensile, flexural, and impact testing are the typical major testing performed on natural fiber composites. In this presentation, sugar palm (Arenga pinnata [Wurmb] Merr.) fibers sized from macro- to nanometers, and their reinforcements with various polymer composites were reviewed. The matrix used was thermoplastic sugar palm starch (SPS) biopolymer. The incorporation of sugar palm fibers (SPFs) was due to the starch itself, which is poor in terms of processability and dimensional stability as well as weak mechanical properties in the final products. Therefore, improvement of these properties are done by incorporating these natural fibers as reinforcement. Considering the sustainability and environmental aspects, sugar palm tree-based biopolymer and natural fibers that are 100% renewable and biodegradable were fabricated. Overall, the reinforcement of plasticized SPS with SPF had enhanced the mechanical properties of the resultant composites. In addition, sugar palm-derived cellulose (SPC) composites were also prepared and used as reinforcing material for the improvement of the mechanical properties of SPS-based films. Further, bionanocomposites films were also prepared by collaborating SPS and sorbitol/glycerol with different nanofiber sugar palm nanocrystalline cellulose and nanofibrillated cellulose with compositions of 0–1.0wt% using solution casting method. SPS nanocomposite films revealed increment in Young's modulus and tensile strength and with increasing nanofillers concentration from 0 to 1.0wt%, respectively.