Oils and Water Absorption Behavior of Natural Fibers Filled TPU Composites for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Natural fibers from fruit skins are surely inexpensive, non- toxic and environmentally friendly, which give unique advantages over the materials. The addition of natural fillers as fillers in the polymer matrix can produce something called as biocomposites. In the other hand, natural fibers are hydrophilic and tend to absorb water, because of their nature which is rich cellulose making it hydrophilic in nature. Besides their nature to water, the ability of natural fibers to absorb oil also interesting to be studied because the degradation of polymer composites filled with natural fibers due to absorb water often precludes their long-term use in biomedical applications. This composite with these properties can be applied as blood bag, in tissue engineering, drug delivery and scaffold, if appropriate. Other than that, the fabrication of this type of biocomposites will reduce the waste of fruits skin. In this paper, natural fibers from several types of fruit skin were used as filler in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composites. The fibers from pineapple skin, coconut shell, coconut husk, corn cob, rambutan, mangoesteen and banana skin with the percentage of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% were incorporated with TPU through melt mixing technique. Composites with different type of natural fiber will absorb oil and water at different rates, as well as the effect of filler content in this composite. Overall, the absorption of water and oil increased its percentage when the filler content in the composites increases. The composites with fiber from rambutan, pineapple and banana skin absorb more water than others composites at 20% filler content in the TPU. The composites filled with pineapple and rambutan also tend to absorb more engine oil, as well as cooking oil.