Studies on effects of BSP fillers on ON PP/NBRr/BSP composites with NAOH and α-APS silane treatment

Abstract

The effects of NaOH and α-APS silane treatments on the characteristics, thermal and mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP)/recycled acrylonitrile butadiene (NBRr)/ banana skin powder (BSP) were studied. The heated two roll mills were used to melt mix the composites at temperature of 180˚C to produce six different fiber loading (70/30/5, 70/30/10, 70/30/15, 70/30/20, 70/30/25 and 70/30/30w/w). The effects of NaOH and α-APS silane treatment on PP/NBRr/BSP composites were analyzed by Tensile Test, Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Water Uptake. The results showed that α-APS silane treated PP/NBRr/BSP composites has better improvement on mechanical properties when compared to NaOH treated PP/NBRr/BSP composites, followed by the weakest mechanical properties of untreated PP/NBRr/BSP composites. DSC results also showed that α-APS silane treated composite has higher cystalline portion than untreated PP/NBRr/BSP composites. These were due to good compatibility and stronger interaction between Si-O-Si moieties with the surface of fiber for α-APS silane treated BSP. The mechanical properties of PP/NBRr/BSP composites improve with decreasing BSP filler loading. Both α-APS silane and NaOH treated PP/NBRr/BSP composites have the same thermal properties that were better than untreated PP/NBRr/BSP composites. This was due to better interfacial adhension between both α-APS silane and NaOH treated BSP filler with PP/NBRr matrices.