The effect of stearic acid and different loading treated and untreated EFB fiber on the tensile, structural and chemical properties of polypropylene/recycled acrylonitrile butadiene rubber/empty fruit bunch composites

Abstract

A new developed of polymer materials made up of polypropylene (PP), recycled nitrile gloves (NBRr) and empty fruit bunch (EFB) fiber was fabricated. Recycled nitrile glove was blended together with PP plastic to reduce the use of petroleum based and to solve the issue of waste discarded at the landfill. EFB fiber was incorporated to lower the production cost of composite. Due to incompatibility of different phases, stearic acid treatment was used to improve the EFB fiber polarity. Thus, the effect of different EFB loading for untreated and treated stearic acid of PP/NBRr/EFB composite was studied. In this work, all the materials were mixed well using a heated two roll mill with temperature 180 °C within 9 minutes. The EFB loading were varied from 0 to 30 phr. The analysis of tensile properties was tested followed the ASTM D638, Type IV, testing procedure, to analyze tensile strength, Young’s modulus and elongation at break. The structural properties of the fracture sample surfaces were observed using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and the chemical properties was analyzed using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR). Composites with stearic acid treatment have shown higher tensile strength compared to untreated EFB fiber. Besides, the micrograph structure surface from scanning electron microscopy analysis showed better fiber and matrix interaction, as the treated-EFB fiber is well encapsulated with the PP matrix. From the FTIR analysis, the intensity peak of OH for PP/NBRr/EFB/SA was reduced due to the removal O-H bond of cellulose from fibers during the surface modification of fibers.