THE EFFECTS OF OPFB SIZE ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF OIL PALM FRUIT BUNCH FIBRE FILLED POLYPROPYLENE–CLAY NANOCOMPOSITES

Abstract

Oil palm fruit bunch (OPFB) fibre was used as filler in polypropylene–clay nanocomposite (PNC) to study its effect on the mechanical properties of OPFB filled PNC or hybrid polymer nanocomposite (HPNC). The OPFB size was varied at 250 μm, 180 μm, 125 μm and 100 μm. HPNC was prepared by compounding 20 wt.% of OPFB together with PNC. Tensile, flexural and impact test samples were injection moulded from the compounds according to ASTM standards. The experimental results showed that the increase of OPFB size in HPNC has increased the tensile and flexural moduli from 39% to 54% and 33% to 69%, respectively. Meanwhile, the tensile and flexural strengths increased as the OPFB size increases. The elongation at break and impact resistance were not affected by OPFB size. Scanning electron microscope result showed that the fracture surfaces of coarser OPFB filled polypropylene–clay nanocomposite has several mechanisms such as fibre pull-outs, fibre fracture and fibre delamination, whereas the PNC filled with finer OPFB exhibited ductile fracture.