Composites of polypropylene and oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) were prepared by melt blending using ENGAGE™ 7467 (polyolefin elastomer) as an impact modifier. ENGAGE™ 7467 is a polyolefin elastomer. The mechanical properties and morphology of composites have been studied. Tensile tests showed that addition of ENGAGE™ 7467 improved the elasticity of the composite, thus reducing the stiffness of the composites but no significant changes on tensile strength. The impact strength was also improved with the addition of ENGAGE™ 7467, but no significant effect on flexural test was observed. This result indicates that the ENGAGE™ 7467 forms a flexible interphase around the OPEFB particles, giving the composites better impact strength for both notched and unnotched samples without degrading the fiber and matrix interaction. The ENGAGE™ 7467 composites characterized using Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy showed that there is no shifting of peaks, indicating that the addition of ENGAGE™ 7467 does not affect the interaction between matrix and filler.
Heavy metals have become a serious pollutant in water as a result of its non-biodegradable and toxicity properties. In this research, banana peel was synthesized as bioadsorbent to remove heavy metals from contaminated water. The major problem associated with banana peel bioadsorbent is that the activated carbon produces from biomass materials possess insignificant adsorption capability compared to its commercial counterpart. Besides that, large quantity of banana peel wastes contributes to its significant disposal problem. Thus, the present work is expected to solve the problems of banana peel disposal by converting it into bioadsorbent. The objectives of this research are to synthesize banana peel bioadsorbent and to evaluate heavy metals adsorption performance of the banana peel bioadsorbent. The bioadsorbent were treated using KOH in its preparation. The materials then undergo characterization using FTIR and AAS. The carboxylic and hydroxyl functional groups were confirmed by FTIR. The maximum removal efficiency for Pb and Fe ions were 100% and 64% respectively. The comprehensive utilization of low-cost raw material as bioadsorbent in wastewater activities are highly suggested due to its facile processing, abundantly available and environmental friendly.
The dispersion of PEG acts as plasticizer in PLA blends were investigated using thermal analysis. The comparisons were made between two melt processing method, twin screw extruder and two-roll mills to study how it will affect theTg,TcandTmof blends in DSC analysis. The TGA behavior was also studied for two-roll mills processing method to confirm the effect of PEG loading in PLA on degradation and amount of residue left after analysis. In DSC analysis, it can be seen clearly, the PEG loading decreased the glass transition temperature in all blends compares to neat PLA. For twin screw extruder blending, the crystallization peak existed for some blend. It was difference for two-roll mills blends where the crystallization peak absent in all blends with PEG loading. The presence of PEG gave no significant variation on melting temperature peak for both processing method.
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