Pineapple Leaf Fibre (PALF) is one of the natural fibres that have high potential in the industry. Natural fibres have become the main alternative source for reinforced polymer composites. The objective of this study is to observe the effect of chemical treatments using Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) solution, Zinc chloride, Acetic Anhydride and Nitric acid on the mechanical properties of pineapple leaf fibre reinforced polypropylene composites. The tensile test was conducted by using the ASTM D638-10 to obtain the tensile strength (TS) and Young's modulus (YM), Flexural properties were conducted to determine the flexural strength (FS) and flexural modulus (FM) of the reinforced composites using the ASTM D256-10 method, and impact test was conducted to determine the impact strength (IS) of the reinforced composites using the Izod ASTM D790-17 method. From the results obtained, the composites with surface modified PALF fillers show enhanced mechanical properties over the untreated PALF fillers in this order; for TS untreated composite < modified with NaOH < modified with C 3 H 6 O 3 < modified with ZnCl < modified with HNO 3. For YM untreated composite < modified with HNO 3 < modified with C 3 H 6 O 3 < modified with NaOH < modified with ZnCl. For FS, untreated PALF/PP composites < modified with NaOH < modified with ZnCl < modified with HNO 3 < modified with C 3 H 6 O 3. For FM, untreated reinforced PALF/PP composites < modified with NaOH < modified with ZnCl < modified with C 3 H 6 O 3 < modified with HNO 3. For IS, the untreated reinforced PALF/PP composites < modified with NaOH < modified with HNO 3 < modified with ZnCl < modified with C 3 H 6 O 3. SEM analysis was carried out on the PALF before the compounding to analyze the effect of the surface modification agents.
The effect of fibre pre-treatment and processing on the water absorption and moisture properties of the Nigerian sheep fibres has been studied. The sheared fibres were pretreated by soaking, washing, rinsing and drying in order to remove the unwanted impurities and inherent constituents present in the fibres. They were further processed by separating and carding to evaluate the changes that occur in their rate of water absorption at each stage. It can be observed that the fibres at the pre-treated stage absorbs more water and has higher moisture content because of the increased pore size due to its overlapping scales which reduces when separated and carded. Therefore, this research shows that the water absorption and moisture retention ability of the sheep fibres can be affected by different stages of pre-treatment, separation and carding.
The comparative analysis of the tensile strength and breaking extension of the sheep, goat and sheep/goat blend has been done. This research shows that the sheep felt fabrics has higher tensile strength followed by the sheep/goat felt fabric and lastly by the goat felt fabrics. While the goat felt fabrics has higher breaking extension followed by the sheep/goat felt fabrics and lastly by the sheep felt. This can be attributable to the nature of their felt fabrics which depends on their fibre characteristics. The sheep felt fabric is regarded as a strong fabric and less extensible because of the ease in which the protruding fibre scales interlocks and therefore can withstand more stress. The goat felt fabric has higher breaking extension properties because of the elastic nature of their fibres and as such can be regarded as a tough fabric.
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