Tensile properties of a poly(vinyl chloride) composite filled with poly(methyl methacrylate) grafted to oil palm empty fruit bunches

Abstract

The influence of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fiber and oil palm empty fruit bunches grafted with poly(methyl methacrylate) (OPEFB-g-PMMA) on the tensile properties of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was investigated. The OPEFB-g-PMMA fiber was first prepared with the optimum conditions for the grafting reaction, which were determined in our previous study. To produce composites, the PVC resin, OPEFB-g-PMMA fiber or ungrafted OPEFB fiber, and other additives were first dry-blended with a laboratory blender before being milled into sheets on a two-roll mill. Test specimens were then hot-pressed, and then the tensile properties were determined. A comparison with the composite filled with the ungrafted OPEFB fiber showed that the tensile strength and elongation at break increased, whereas Young's modulus decreased, with the incorporation of 20 phr OPEFB-g-PMMA fiber into the PVC matrix. The trend of the tensile properties obtained in this study was supported by functional group analysis, glasstransition temperature measurements, and surface morphological analysis.

A potential bioconversion of empty fruit bunches into organic fertilizer using Eudrilus eugeniae

“…Currently, a number of studies have been conducted by different researchers on the 'zero waste' concept (Zaman 2013a). In Malaysia, several different approaches have been attempted to explore the potentials for reusing empty fruit bunches as main feedstocks or substrates to produce activated carbon (Firoozian et al 2011), bioethanol (Abu Bakar et al 2012), biohydrogen (Chong et al 2013), bio-oil (Abdullah et al 2010), biochar (Samsuri et al 2014), citric acid (Alam et al 2010), composite (Bakar et al 2010), lignophenol (Abdullah et al 2009), xylose (Tan et al 2013) and others. As empty fruit bunches contain high organic matter and mineral contents, these wastes are also currently being investigated as potential feedstocks in composting (Kananam et al 2011;Mohammad et al 2013).…”

Flexural and Impact Properties of Poly (Vinyl Chloride) and Acrylic-Impact Modified Poly (Vinyl Chloride) Composite Filled with Poly (Methyl Methacrylate) Grafted to Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches

“…This impact strength of grafted composites' reduction was slightly higher compared to the ungrafted composite, even though a previous article reported that the slight improvement in tensile elongation at break provided a good indication of the improvement of impact strength [17]. This circumstance can be explained by the failure mode of the composites, whereby the composte is influenced by the strength of interface adhesion.…”

“…The use of poly (methyl methacrylate)-grafted-oil palm empty fruit bunch or PMMA-g-OPEFB in poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) has also been reported in our previous work [17]. The tensile properties of the grafted composite were influenced mainly by the fiber=matrix interaction.…”

“…A similar procedure from our previous study [17], the optimum conditions of grafting reaction obtained from the previous study [20], were scaled up and OPEFB Grafted with Poly (Methyl Methacrylate) 267 applied to produce OPEFB-g-PMMA fibers in bulk. The grafting percentage and efficiency were also found to be about 177 and 59%, respectively.…”

“…Finally, the grafted product was kept in an oven at 60 C for 24 hours until a constant weight was achieved. The grafted product was further treated using the Soxhlet extraction technique for the removal of PMMA homopolymer which was formed during the reaction [17,20].…”