Functionalized copper nanoparticles (FCuNPs) have been synthesized by chemical reduction method and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) performed as a stabilizer in that medium. Analysis observed that the average size of the synthesized FCuNPs was 3.5 nm. The obtained FCuNPs were loaded in the oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) natural fibre. Before the loading of FCuNPs in EFB fibres, the surface of the fibres is tailored by the cationic agent CHPTAC since they have a natural tendency to exhibit negatively charged surface owing to the presence of large amount of hydroxyl groups. Thereafter, different types of composite were developed and their properties were studied. The composites were developed by using the untreated empty fruit bunch (UEFB) fibres and FCuNPs loaded EFB (NP-CAEFB) fibres with commercially available unsaturated polyester resin (UPER). The synthesized composites were characterized through FTIR, FESEM, XRD, DSC, tensile strength tests, etc. The obtained biodegradation results indicated that significant weight loss was not observed for neat PER and PER/FNP-CAEFB nanocomposite, whereas, the UEFB/VUPER composite showed ca. 21.4% weight loss at 90 days, which was considered rationally due to the preferential degradation of the fibre.
Copper nanoparticles were impregnated onto oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) powders via in-situ sol-gel method. The impregnation and interfacial interaction of copper nanoparticles with EFB were analysed by fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The interaction of copper nanoparticles with the surface functional groups of EFB powders was identified by FTIR analysis. The peak shift of O-H and CO functional groups indicated the interaction between EFB and copper nanoparticles. Besides that, XRD and EDX analysis confirmed the formation of copper nanoparticles on EFB powder. Due to the copper impregnation, the crystallinity of the EFB was increased as shown by XRD. The particles size of nanoparticles was analysed via TEM and AFM where the sizes were in the range of 60-100 nm. These findings strongly suggest that, copper nanoparticles impregnated EFB powders can be synthesized via insitu sol gel method.
There has been a continuous anthropological interest in the Malay peasantry for the past 70 years. This has resulted in a rich theoretical and empirical literature. This article offers a critical genealogical account of knowledge production spanning some four generations of anthropologists. The first two generations were dominated by Western anthropologists — notably Raymond Firth and Michael Swift — working in the context of late colonialism. The latter two generations were represented by indigenous scholars who consciously dealt with the intellectual legacies of the past while, at the same time, opening up new research vistas. Using a close reading of some of the key anthropological texts produced on the Malay peasantry, as well as an analysis of the institutionalisation of professional anthropology in Malaysia, the article discusses the tensions of inter-generational continuities and ruptures. While acknowledging the enormous debt that many indigenous scholars clearly owed to their Western mentors it is argued that there emerged a qualitative break with the past during the late 1970s and 1980s. This saw indigenous anthropologists grappling with post-peasantry studies and opening up new fields of inquiry to do with larger issues of agrarian change, capitalist modernity, ideational formation and contemporary politics.
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