Effect of cellulose nano crystal and graphene nano platelets on thermal properties of unsaturated polyester resin reinforced kenaf fibre biocomposites

Thermal properties of new biocomposites prepared from unsaturated polyester resin (UPE) reinforced with kenaf fibre mat (KFM) and two nanofillers were studied. Before fabricating the specimen all the reinforcement material were oven dried at 105C. Two kinds of nanofillers that were used is cellulose nano crystals (CNC) and graphene nano platelets (GNP) in the amount of 0-3 wt %. The nanofillers are then mixed homogenously with the unsaturated polyester resin before catalyzed with methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) and cobalt naphthenate (CN). The CNC/GNP-UPE mixture were poured into the mould that already have KFM. The KFM-UPE biocomposites with various GNP/CNC hybrid ratio was then fabricated by hot press moulding at 120 C. The thermal behaviour of the biocomposites were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) methods. The obtained results revealed that the presence of both GNP and CNC nanofillers has improved the thermal stability of KFM-UPE biocomposites at high temperature and effectively increase the char residue formation. In addition, the TGA and DSC analysis also showed the enhancement of glass transition temperature (Tg) value and degradation temperature for hybrid CNC/GNP reinforced UPE biocomposites as compared to neat UPE and KFM-UPE composites.