Crystallinity, chemical, thermal, and dynamic mechanical properties of rice husk/coco peat fiber reinforced ABS biocomposites

Abstract

Disposing of agricultural waste is difficult, and the most significant challenge today is to find novel ways to utilize these residues. This work attempts to evaluate dynamic mechanical, thermal, crystallinity, and chemical properties of rice husk (RH) and coco peat (CP) acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) hybrid composites at varying fiber compositions. RH/CP hybrid composites at 20/0 wt.%, 5/15 wt.%, 10/10 wt.%, 15/5 wt.%, and 0/20 wt.% of RH/CP fibers were fabricated. The dynamic mechanical properties, such as the loss modulus, storage modulus, and damping factor, were investigated via dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Overall, the incorporation of single and hybrid RH and CP reinforcements reduced the crystallinity. Despite that, the chemical and damping properties were considerably enhanced. 15/5 RH/CP composite had a storage modulus of 1970 MPa, which is 11% lower than neat ABS at 2220 MPa. The tan δ of neat ABS was 0.7067, whereas 20/0 RH/CP had the highest tan δ at 2.0603. Based on DMA, the filler ratio did not influence the thermal property. Overall, the findings show that hybrid RH/CP/ABS composite at 15/5 wt.% of RH/CP fibers enables the substitution of synthetic ABS with an acceptable level of characteristics and will be particularly useful for damping applications.