Abstract
The effect of methacrylic acid (MAA) as chemical treatment on the properties of kapok husk (KH) filled linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) has been studied. KH, as natural filler was added into LLDPE by using Brabender Plasticizer EC plus at temperature 160 °C. The addition of KH content decreased the tensile strength and elongation at break of the eco-composites, but modulus of elasticity increased. Crystallinity of LLDPE/KH eco-composites decreased with increasing of KH content. Chemical treatment by MAA altered the tensile properties and crystallinity of eco-composites. The treated LLDPE/KH eco-composites showed higher tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and crystallinity of eco-composites due to better interfacial interaction between LLDPE matrix and KH filler. This has proven by Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM).
Highlights
Polymer eco-composites have become more attractive in either research field or industries field recently [1]
It showed that the chemical treatment of kapok husk (KH) by methacrylic acid (MAA) promoted a better filler-matrix interfacial interaction due to the reduction of hydrophilic properties of KH filler
The highest improvement of treated linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)/KH ecocomposites compared untreated eco-composites is at 20 php with 67.5% increment
Summary
Polymer eco-composites have become more attractive in either research field or industries field recently [1]. Many researchers studied the effect of natural filler filled polymer eco-composites nowadays [2,3,4]. This is driven by processing of natural filler is much easier compared to synthetic filler instead of economic. Due to increasing demands on the LLDPE, a few researchers have studied the incorporation of natural filler filled LLDPE eco-composites [6,7,8,9]. The only disadvantage of polymer eco-composites is incompatibility between natural filler and polymer matrix which results in poor properties of the eco-composites This encourages researchers to modify the properties of dispersion of natural filler into polymer matrix [11,12,13,14]. The effects of MAA on tensile properties, morphology and crystallinity of the LLDPE/KH eco-composites were studied
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