Banana stem fibre filled agar fibreboard bio-composites- characterization of water absorption, mechanical and thermal properties
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Date
2016-06
Authors
Muhammad Helmi Mohd Mansor
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Abstract
In this study, the banana stem fibre filled agar bio-composites have been prepared with different agar content of 10%, 20% and 30% and their water absorption, mechanical, thermal and surface morphology properties were investigated. The bio-composites were produced by using short banana stem fibre and agar in powder form. The compound of bio-composites was mixed until all agar dispersed to all area in beaker and fibre. The water spray process was used to activate the agar and the compression machine with temperature 180⁰C used to cure the agar. Water absorption test was conducted using distilled water at room temperature. The bio-composites shows higher water uptake with increasing agar content. The flexural strength of composite was conducted using Instron machine and the impact test was conducted to identify the impact strength of bio-composites. Thermal analysis using TGA and DSC to identify the thermal properties of bio-composites. The increasing agar content, the higher degradation of bio-composites. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to analyses the fracture surface morphology after impact test. From the SEM test, the presence of micro-void and porosity can be observed. The interaction of agar and banana stem fibre cannot be observed due to the higher temperature at microscope.