Abstract
The influence of fiber size on mechanical and water absorption properties of recycled Polypropylene/Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (namely, rPP/EFB) bio-composites has been conducted study. rPP/EFB bio-composite was a compounding of recycled polypropylene (rPP) and palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) with different sizes, i.e. particle size (150 mesh sieve escaped, referred as p-EFB) and short fiber (s-EFB). Manufacturing of the bio-composites was prepared by the solution method in boiling xylene via reactively process using benzoyl peroxide as an initiator. The addition of coupling agent, such as maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-g-MAH) was improve the chemical interaction between the rPP and EFB which evidenced by the shift of the wave number of raw materials on infra-red spectra of rPP/EFB bio-composite. Mechanical properties test showed that s-EFB was increase the tensile strength value up to 95% compare to rPP, higher than the p-EFB which is 56% compare to rPP. However, the elongation percentage of the bio-composites contain s-EFB was lower than the bio-composites contain p-EFB. Water absorption analysis also performed in this study to determine the biodegradability of bio-composites. In this study, fiber size gives a considerable influence on the mechanical properties of rPP/EFB bio-composites, however not significant on water absorption properties.
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