Effects of Chemical Modification on Physical And Mechanical Properties of Rice Husk - Stripped Oil Palm Fruit Bunch Fiber Polypropylene Hybrid Composite

Abstract

Rice husk and stripped oil palm fruit bunch were used as reinforcing filler in the preparation of particle-reinforced hybrid composite with polypropylene as the matrix. To determine the effect of chemical modification of the lignocellulose materials on the mechanical properties of the hybrid thermoplastic polymer composites, the reinforcing fibers were divided into three parts the crude (untreated), mercerized and acetylated parts. Three levels of the filler loading (20, 30 and 40 wt%) were used in the experimental design. The test samples were produced by compounding the fibers with polymer matrix at temperature range of 165 0 C to 175 0 C and subsequently molded at a pressure of 32MPa. The test samples were subjected to mechanical properties tests and the results analyzed using ANOVA at highly significant level of 0.01 and significant level of 0.05. The results show that mercerization caused significant increase in the tensile strength , impact strength and hardness values of the hybrid composite. The same treatment showed no significant effect on the values of compressive strength, tensile modulus, density and percentage water absorption. Acetylation tended to cause reduction in water absorption, improved impact and tensile strengths and hardness value while tensile modulus and compressive strength of the samples decreased due to acetylation. No significant effect on the density of the hybrid composites, consequent to acetylation, was observed from obtained results.