Effect of Jute Nanofibre on the Properties of Waste Polypropylene/Polystyrene /Natural Rubber (wPP/PS/NR) Ter- Polymer Blend

Abstract

In this work, the effect of jute nanofibre on ter-blend of waste polypropylene (wPP), polystyrene (PS), and natural rubber (NR) nanocomposite was studied. The nanofibre was produced from jute fibre via a ball milling process after freezing with liquid nitrogen. The produced nanofibre was analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). The ter-blend was modified with the nanofibre at different weight percentages (2–10 wt%) at 2wt% intervals. The modified polymer blends were characterized for mechanical, thermal, physical and morphological properties. FTIR revealed the removal of hemicellulose, lignin and other impurities from the jute fibre, due to the change in wave numbers observed. The DLS analysis showed that an average of 85.54 nm size distribution by the intensity and Polydispersity Index (PDI) of 0.353 was achieved. Also, the thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) showed that jute nanofibres proved to be thermally stable up to 282 oC. Polymer blends modified with 2 wt% nanofibres had the highest average impact and tensile strengths. While, the percentage water absorption (%WA), showed that sp10% absorbed the highest amount of water after 24 hrs. The weight losses of the modified blend at various temperatures were found to increase with the addition of nanofibre. The Scanning electron microscope (SEM) revealed cracks, voids and blend-separation as the amount of jute nanofibre was increased. While, Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) revealed that the Tg of the modified blend was improved, while the loss-factor improved greatly by 43%, but the storage and loss-moduli remained unchanged.