Abstract
Towards developing a polymeric matrix characterized by high strength to cost ratio, polypropylene (PP) was hybridized with low-cost particulate snail shell (PSS) and kenaf fiber (KF) via compression moulding at 180 °C and 0.2 MPa. The developed composites were grouped into three and labeled as mix 2, 4, and 10. Each group entailed the blend of 5, 10, 20, and 30 wt% KF with 2, 4, 10 wt% PSS respectively. From the results, it is observed that the hardness value was enhanced by the blend of 5 to 30 wt% KF and 2, 4, and 10 wt% PSS. However, 2 wt% PSS mix with 5 to 30 wt% KF resulted in progressive improvement in impact, compressive, flexural, and tensile strengths values. The 4 wt% PSS yielded consecutive increase in impact, compressive and flexural strength when combined with 5 and 10 wt% KF. However, it was observed that subsequent addition of 20 and 30 wt% KF led to a marginal reduction in the strength values. The tensile strength attained optimum value when 4 wt% PSS was commixed with 30 wt% KF. Conversely, the combinations of 10 wt% PSS with 5, 10, 20, and 30 wt% KF had no significant improvement to the mechanical properties of PSS/KF-bio-PP composite (except for hardness) siring strength decrease. Taguchi optimization revealed that the collage of 4 wt% PSS and 10 wt% KF presented optimum mix for hybrid bio-PP composite.
Highlights
Towards developing a polymeric matrix characterized by high strength to cost ratio, polypropylene (PP) was hybridized with low-cost particulate snail shell (PSS) and kenaf fiber (KF) via compression moulding at 180 °C and 0.2 MPa
The inclusion of kenaf fiber at 5 to 20 wt% in maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene led to enhancement of strength of composites
Optimum improvement was attained when 2 wt% PSS was combined with 30 wt% KF
Summary
Towards developing a polymeric matrix characterized by high strength to cost ratio, polypropylene (PP) was hybridized with low-cost particulate snail shell (PSS) and kenaf fiber (KF) via compression moulding at 180 °C and 0.2 MPa. The results revealed that irrespective of size, an increasing proportion of the particle improved the yield, tensile and flexural strengths even as hardness was e nhanced[20]. Cardanol was used with untreated and NaOH treated coir particles at different sizes of 25, 50, and 75 μm 21 Their studies revealed an enhancement in tensile, flexural, and impact strengths respectively. Jute fiber employed by Kabir et al.[28], led to the enhancement of tensile and flexural properties From these literatures, it’s clear that agro-by products in terms of fiber, play major role in the improvement of mechanical properties of developed polymeric composites. On the other hand, hybridized polypropylene with coir fiber and yam peel particulate as reported by Adediran et al.[30], showed an improvement in impact strength as well as tensile and flexural properties. In addition to the property evaluation, statistical analysis was carried out on obtained results to derive an optimum combination of kenaf fiber and particulate snail shell
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