Preparation and characterization of modified polypropylene/ palm kernel shell (PP/PKS) biocomposites

Abstract

The research on palm kernel shell (PKS) and polypropylene (PP) biocomposites consists of four parts. The first part is mainly to investigate the effect of incorporating PKS as filler on the mechanical, water absorption, morphology and thermal properties of PP. PKS (5-25 weight % filler loading) was compounded with polypropylene using Brabender Plastograph internal mixer at processing temperature 180°C and rotor speed 60 rpm. Preliminary results show that the tensile strength, flexural strength and elongation at break decreased with the increasing of filler loading but increased the tensile modulus, flexural modulus and water absorption. The morphology study using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows poor interfacial interaction between PKS and PP with the increasing of filler content. In addition, PKS was found to be a poor nucleating agent in thermal studies. The second part of the research is to study the effect of polypropylene grafted maleic anhydride (PP-g-MAH) as a compatibilizer on mechanical, thermal properties, morphology and water absorption of PP/PKS biocomposites were studied. The third part of the research is to study the effect of chemical treatment on mechanical, thermal properties and morphology of PP/PKS biocomposites were studied by using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) (2 wt. %). The final part involved subjecting the modification treatment on PP/PKS biocomposites by using coupling agent. The effect of chemical modification of PP/PKS biocomposites are improved tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus and crystallinity but decreased water uptake. The morphology study shows better interaction between filler and matrix with the usage of 2 vol. % of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane.