The alkaline treatment with 5 wt. % sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution at room temperature for 24 and 48 h was performed on coir fibre. The structural characterisation, thermal degradation and water absorption ability of the untreated and NaOH-treated coir fibre polymer composites have been studied. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that coir fibres treated with NaOH have rough surface texture and the roughness of the fibre surface becomes significant as the duration of the NaOH treatment increased. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra confirmed that NaOH treatment removed hemicelluloses as evidenced by the absence of absorption bands at 1724.36 cm-1 and changes the absorption intensity at bands 1244.09 cm-1 and 1249.87 cm-1 due to the loss of lignin. NaOH-treated coir fibre composites demonstrated better thermal stability at low temperature degradation. At high temperature, the thermal stability was reduced due to the decreased of residual lignin content. The water absorption of the NaOH-treated coir fibre composites was lower than untreated coir composite contributed by better interfacial adhesion between the NaOH-treated coir fibre to epoxy resin.

This study has demonstrated biorefining steps for ryegrass and silage at a pilot scale to extrude fibre cake for the production of nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), a potentially green biomaterial for replacing conventional fillers in the manufacture of polymer composites. Further treatments of processed ryegrass fibres with mechanical shearing, microfluidising, hydrochloric acid (HCl)/ sulphuric acid and a four stage {ethylenediaminetetra-acetic acid, sodium hydroxide, sodium hypochlorite and HCl} hydrolysis yielded 43.8, 36.1, 25.6 and 39.8 kg t 21 DM of NFCs respectively. The NFCs were characterised using microscopy, X-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering, spectroscopy and thermogravimetry. The NFC had diameters from 3.0-9.1 nm and length 308 nm-4.6 mm. NFC-polyvinyl alcohol composites containing NFC (5 wt%) exhibited enhanced Young's modulus and thermal stability by factors of 2.5 and 2 respectively compared with control. The mass, energy, water and chemical balances of the four process steps were assessed to evaluate technical feasibility and also to provide baseline production data for scaling up. The microfluidised product has been identified as the best NFC product, but production cost needs to be reduced.

Optimised routes have been established to obtain high aspect ratio cellulose microfibrils derived from plant feedstocks, involving a combination of a chemical and mechanical treatment using a high pressure microfluidizer. By this means, nano-cellulose was produced using different pretreatment protocols. The nanofibres produced were characterised for its particle size distribution measurement (laser diffraction and zeta potential analysis) and fourier transform infrared for its structural analysis. Results obtained and subsequent trends observed in chemical, mechanical and chemo-mechanical treated nanofibres were compared and contrasted. The chemomechanical treatment (TEMPO-oxidation and high pressure microfluidisation) yielded higher aspect ratio nanofibrils than nanofibrils made by solely chemical or mechanical treatment.

The effect of coconut shell (CS), coconut shell activated carbon (CSAC) and beta-silicon carbide (β-SiC) in polymer composites was investigated. Elemental composition, surface morphologies and structural analyses of the fillers were performed using carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur (CHNS) analyser, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray Diffractometer (XRD). The dielectric properties of the composites were measured using open-ended coaxial line method. CS and CSAC fillers had positive influence on the dielectric properties (ε’, ε” and σ) of the polymer composites, contributed by the orientation polarizations arises from polar nature of the amorphous CS and CSAC fillers. β-SiC filler had insignificant influence on the dielectric properties of the polymer composites due to its single polarization of the crystalline structure filler. This finding is in agreement with XRD patterns of CS and CSAC fillers that revealed the presence of amorphous structure with broad diffraction peaks that were detected at 2ϴ=22.236°, 34.8604° and 2ϴ=23.985° and 44.015°, respectively. The amorphization structure in the polymer composites allows the displacement and conduction currents that were induced from electric field to flow through the polymer composites when subjected to electromagnetic energy, thus increased the dielectric properties of the composites.

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