Characterization and properties of low linear density polyethylene (LLDPE)/ acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR)/ palm press fiber (PPF) composite with and without ϒ-APS coupling agent

Abstract

The abundant of fibrous palm press fibre (PPF) agriculture by-product can create major environmental probles when simply left on the plantation fields. About 10% of this fibrous waste material are utilize as boiler feedstock in the oil mill and some of it are take as soil fertilizer and majority of it are leave it abundantly. Beside, the most vital issue in the polymer field are incompatibility between polar nature fiber and hydrophobic thermoplastic material. In this research, PPF are utilized as nature plant fibres reinforcement for the LLDPE thermoplastic and elastomeric NBR matrices. Enhancement of wettibility interface between fibre-matrix are carried out by doing surface modification with ϒ - aminopropyltriethoxysilane (ϒ-APS). The characteristic and properties of low linear density polyethylene (LLDPE)/ acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR)/ palm press fiber (PPF) was investigated. All samples were prepared using heated two roll mill model DW511 at temperature of 135ϒ and rotor speed of 15rpm with recipes of (100/0/10, 80/20/10, 70/30/10, 60/40/10, 50/50/10 and 40/60/10phr). The cooperation of ϒ- aminopropyltriethoxysilane (ϒ-APS) as a coupling agent was enhance mechanical and thermal properties of the LLDPE/NBR matrices and PPF filler. Modification of PPF filler surface has exhibited good attachment between filler-matrices bonding due to the increases the hydrophobic characteristic of PPF. Better properties such as tensile, thermal stability and crystallinity of composite also exhibit an improvement after introduce of ϒ-APS as coupling agent.