Mechanical properties of untreated and treated sugar palm fibre reinforced polypropylene composites

This research investigates the tensile, flexural and impact properties of sugar palm fibre (SPF) reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites. Composites were developed by using internal mixer and hot press machine, and were fabricated with containing of 10, 20 and 30% weight of the sugar palm fibres. Two types of treatments named mercerization and compatibilizing agent are used to improve the adhesion between fibre and matrix for composites with 30%wt. of sugar palm fibre. Mercerization is the fibre surface treatment that soaking the SPF in alkaline solution with 2%, 4% and 6%wt. of alkali concentration. Maleic anhydride polypropylene (MAPP) was selected as compatibilizing agent with 2%, 3% and 5%wt. loading. Then, the mechanical properties of composites were evaluated to study the tensile, flexural impact properties based on the ASTM D638, ASTM D790 and ASTM D6110 standards respectively. The results showed that the increase of SPF loading in PP matrix improved the tensile and flexural properties of the composites. Meanwhile for the impact strength, it shows a decreasing order with increasing fibre loading. The effect of both treatments also showed the improvement for every mechanical properties of the composites.