Preparation and characterization of pineapple leaf fiber filled thermoplastic polyurethane composite

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of addition the natural fiber as filler in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) has been determined. The pineapple leaf fiber reinforced with thermoplastic polyurethane has been developed by varying parameter which is fiber loading percentage (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25%). After sample preparation, the composite of the pineapple leaf fiber and thermoplastic polyurethane(TPU) was undergo few test such as tensile test , scanning electron microscope (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and swelling test to determine the characterization of pineapple leaf fiber filled TPU composite. The 5% filler loading of TPU/PALF composite showed the highest value of tensile strength and elongation at break, this may due to good interfacial adhesion of the filler-matrix and good distribution of filler within the matrix and this can proved by the micrograph of SEM. In addition, the swelling index of the TPU/PALF composite increase as the filler loading increase, because the fiber contain a lot of the porous structure and poor interaction of PALF particular in the matrix, so cannot prevent direct diffusion of oil molecules into the composite. In the TGA testing shown the poor thermal stability as the filler loading increase is due to increase content of low thermal stability of PALF and the poor fiber-matrix interfacial interaction on the composite.