Abstract
The purpose of this research is to study the physical and environmental properties of thermoplastic corn starch (TPCS) reinforced with 2 mm length of pineapple leaf fibre (PALF) bio-composites. Weight percentages of PALF ranging from 20 wt.% to 60 wt.% were used in this investigation. Hot compression moulding technique was used to produce samples of TPCS with different wt.% of PALF at the temperature of 165 °C for the duration of 15 minutes. The physical tests that had been performed were density, moisture content, moisture absorption and water absorption while the environmental tests were water solubility and soil burial testing. The moisture content results showed a decreasing trend by increasing the PALF content. However, moisture absorption and water absorption revealed an increased yield with the increase in PALF content. Meanwhile, density results did not show much change even when the fibre content was raised up to 60 wt.%. In addition, the water solubility results showed an increasing trend as the fibre was increased from 20 wt.% to 60 wt.%. On the other hand, soil burial results revealed vice versa whereby an increasing fibre content caused the weight loss of bio-composites to gradually decrease from 20 wt.% of fibre loading to the maximum of fibre loading. In conclusion, the physical and environmental properties of TPCS/PALF bio-composites obtained from this study can be used to develop biodegradable products such as containers or disposable trays.
Highlights
There are abundant researches on natural fibre composites being done by researchers around the world due to their beneficial characteristics such as environmentally friendly, biodegradability, economical and superior strength to weight ratio
It can be understood that the physical and environmental properties of the thermoplastic corn starch (TPCS) reinforced pineapple leaf fibre (PALF) bio-composites were unquestionably affected by the content of the fibre
By adding the PALF did not give a significant impact to the density result of TPCS/PALF bio-composites
Summary
There are abundant researches on natural fibre composites being done by researchers around the world due to their beneficial characteristics such as environmentally friendly, biodegradability, economical and superior strength to weight ratio. Natural fibre composites prove that it can be used in diverse purposes such as aerospace, automotive and construction sectors. Natural fibre composites can be formed from natural fibre as the reinforce and matrix from thermoplastics, thermosets or biodegradable materials as resins [2]. More extensive efforts have been carried out on biodegradable polymer materials as substitution to synthetic polymers that come from petroleum-based plastics which have their disadvantages in term of their poor biodegradability as compared to the biodegradable polymers materials. Biodegradable polymer materials come from starch, chitosan, cellulose, soy, polylactic acid (PLA), polyhydroxy alkanoates and others [3]
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