Nano Hybrid Oil Palm Ash/Shell Filled Kenaf Fiber Reinforced Vinyl Ester Composites
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Date
2015
Authors
Abdul Sukor, Nur Amiranajwa
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Abstract
In this present research, the utilization of nano hybrid of inorganic oil palm ash (OPA)/organic shell (OPS) in vinyl ester composites with/without unextracted/extracted kenaf fibre reinforcement was studied. The raw OPA and OPS were subjected to high-energy ball milling and converted into nanoparticles. The characterization of nano hybrid OPA and OPS filler were evaluated by using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX), Malvern ZetaSizer, X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy. Both nano hybrid OPA and OPS filler particle produced were crushed and irregular shape structures, and consists of silica and carbon as the major element composition, respectively. The OPA and OPS particle size ranged between 68-97 nm and 51-95 nm indicates their nanometric nature. The OPA shows high in the degree of crystallinity index at 66 %, while OPS were found to be low at 35 %. The characterization of kenaf fibre was identified using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and contact angle revealed the removal of cementing materials on the surface of fibre and increases in contact angle from 65 ° to 95 ° after extraction. The extracted kenaf fibre helps in further enhanced the properties of composites compared to unextracted kenaf fibre. The effect of different filler loading in 0, 1, 3, and 5 % of nano hybrid OPA/OPS on physical, mechanical, morphological and thermal properties of composites were studied. As the incorporation of nano hybrid filler loading increases, the physical properties were increased such as the density and void content, while water absorption of composites were reduced. All mechanical properties of the composites except for elongation at break were increased up to 3 % and decreased upon 5 % filler loading. Meanwhile, the elongation at break was reduced with the addition of nano hybrid filler. Thermal stability exhibits the same trends with aforementioned mechanical properties. TEM analysis revealed the good dispersion and distribution was achieved on 3 % nano hybrid filler loading. Therefore, the addition of 3 % of hybrid OPA and OPS filler loading with reinforcement of extracted kenaf fibre was believed to be as an optimum condition of composites.
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