Improvement of Physicomechanical Properties of Pineapple Leaf Fiber Reinforced Composite

Abstract EN

Pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites were prepared by compression molding.

The fiber content varied from 25% to 45% by weight.

Water uptake percentages of the composites containing various wt% of fiber were measured.

All the composites demonstrated lower water uptake percentages and maximum of 1.93% for 45 wt% PALF/PP composite treated with 7(w/v)% NaOH.

Tensile Strength (TS), Tensile Modulus (TM), Elongation at Break (Eb %), Bending Strength (BS), Bending Modulus (BM), and Impact Strength (IS) were evaluated for various fiber content.

The 45 wt% PALF/PP composite exhibited an increase of 210% TS, 412% TM, 155% BS, 265% BM, and 140% IS compared to PP matrix.

Moreover, with the increasing of fiber content, all the mechanical properties increase significantly; for example, 45 wt% fiber loading exhibited the best mechanical property.

Fibers were also treated with different concentration of NaOH and the effects of alkali concentrations were observed.

The composite treated with 7 (w/v)% NaOH exhibited an increase of 25.35% TS, 43.45% TM, 15.78% BS, and 52% BM but 23.11% decrease of IS compared to untreated composite.

Alkali treatment improved the adhesive characteristics of fiber surface by removing natural impurities, hence improving the mechanical properties.

However, over 7% NaOH concentration of the tensile strength of the composite reduced slightly due to overexposure of fibers to NaOH.