Effect of oil palm empty fruit bunch and nanocellulose as biodegradable filler in natural rubber latex film
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Date
2019-07
Authors
Oo Yew Hui Lik
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Abstract
Natural Rubber (NR) latex glove required long period of time to degrades in soil due to the presence of crosslinks and incoporation of additives during compounding process. Therefore, natural fiber can be incorporated in NR latex glove to accelerate the biodegradation process. This study investigates the effect of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fiber and nanocellulose addition on biodegradability and mechanical propeties of NR latex films. The optimum filler loading of treated OPEFB (5 phr, 10 phr, 15 phr, 20 phr) and nanocellulose (1 phr, 3 phr, 5 phr) was also determined. OPEFB was treated by using 5% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for 4 hour at 80 °C. After alkali treatment, 2% sodium hypochlorite was used to bleach the fiber for 4 hour at 80 °C. After preparation of fillers, changes in structural components, surface morphology, crystallinity and thermal analysis of treated fiber were investigated. After treatment, it was found that treated OPEFB filler have smaller particle size, higher crystallinity, better thermal stability and improved filler-rubber interaction as compared to untreated OPEFB. This is due to lignin, hemicellulose and other non-cellulosic components were removed during the treatment process. The increased of OPEFB and nanocellulose filler loading in NR latex films showed the decreased in mechanical properties due to the filler affect the formation of cross linking between the rubber particles. Therefore, the optimum filler loading for OPEFB and nanocellulose obtained at 5phr and 1phr respectively. After 4 weeks soil burial, the OPEFB and nanocellulose filled NR latex films shows significant mass loss and mechanical properties reduction as much as 36.69 % as compared to the unfilled NR latex films. This indicates that addition of OPEFB and nanocellulose improved the biodegradability of NR latex film. 5 phr OPEFB filled NR latex film shows higher biodegradability than 1 phr nanocellulose filled NR latex film.