Mechanical and water absorption properties of hybrid kenaf and pineapple composite added with epoxidized natural rubber

Abstract

Wood polymer composites, WPC, is a competitive material which ranging from consumer products to engineering parts in various of application field. In this research, mechanical properties and water absorption were investigated on the hybrid WPC made from kenaf fibre and pineapple leaf fibres, PALF, as fillers at three level of total fibre loading of 30 %, 40 % and 50 % by weight, mixed in high density polyethylene, HDPE. The fibres hybrid ratio was kept constant at 60% kenaf to 40% PALF and the composite was compounded in a melt mixer and fabricated by compression moulding. The effect of different total fibres loading and addition 3% by weight epoxidized natural rubber, ENR, into the composite formulation was evaluated. For both with and without addition of ENR into kenaf-PALF/HDPE composite, tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural modulus, impact strength and water absorption increased with an increase in total fibres loading, but the elongation at break of the composite decreased with increasing total fibres loading. Flexural strength only increased at lower fibre loading but decreased at highest fibre loading of this experiment. Meanwhile, overall effect of ENR addition was that it enhanced the tensile strength, impact strength and water absorption of the composite but only improved flexural strength and flexural modulus at lower fibre loadings of 30 and 40 %. On the other hand, ENR decreased the tensile modulus and elongation at break of the composites. At highest fibres loading from this study and with 3 % ENR-50 added, the composite, KP50PE2 is deformable and experienced a slight decreased in tensile strength. However, its enhanced impact property and higher toughness enabled the composite to withstand impact loading.