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Title:	Properties of polypropylene nonwoven fabric and composites from kenaf and oil palm empty fruit bunch fibres
Authors:	Noor Intan Saffinaz Anuar (P86057)
Supervisor:	Sarani Zakaria, Prof. Dr.
Keywords:	Polypropylene fibres Kenaf fibre Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations Dissertations, Academic -- Malaysia
Issue Date:	22-Dec-2020
Description:	The natural fibre reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites were prepared by the combination of carding and needle punching nonwoven process followed by compression moulding. This study focused on the comparison of mechanical, thermal, physical, and chemical properties between kenaf fibre and oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibre as well as the effect of both fibres on the mechanical properties of nonwoven fabrics and PP composites. Further studies have also been conducted to identify the effect of punching density, fabric weight, natural fibre content and fabric direction to the mechanical properties of nonwoven fabrics and composites. The punching density, fabric weight and natural fibres content were set at 0, 150 and 300 punches/cm2; 300, 400 and 700 g/m2; 40, 50 and 60%, respectively. The parameter of 300 punches/cm2, 700 g/m2 fabric weight, 60% of natural fibres content at machine direction was the optimum parameter for the preparation of both kenaf and EFB nonwoven fabric. On the other hand, composites reinforced with 60% natural fibres content demonstrated the highest value for most properties related to mechanical performance. The result showed that kenaf fibre was finer than EFB fibre, where the individual kenaf fibre and EFB fibre has an average diameter of 80 μm and 400 μm, respectively. Tensile strength of kenaf fibre was also higher than EFB fibre with the value of 400 and 150 MPa, respectively. The results showed that the tensile properties of the fibres affected the elongation of nonwoven fabrics but not their tensile strength. EFB's nonwoven fabrics showed higher elongation than kenaf nonwoven fabric which contributed by higher EFB fibre elongation property. The opposite results were obtained from the influence of the properties of both fibres to nonwoven PP composites, where the fibres strength influenced the composites mechanical properties. The kenaf/PP nonwoven composites showed higher tensile and flexural properties than EFB/PP nonwoven composites. The ANOVA results supported this finding where the correlation between type of fibre and nonwoven fabric tensile strength was not significant, while the correlation between type of fibre and nonwoven composites was significant. The tensile properties of untreated kenaf and EFB nonwoven fabric were almost similar, but kenaf produced higher mechanical properties of nonwoven composite than EFB. The finer fibre diameter and higher fibre tensile strength of kenaf fibre than EFB resulted to higher mechanical properties of kenaf/PP nonwoven composites (KPNC) than EFB/PP nonwoven composites (EPNC). The effect of chemical treatment of PVA, silane, urea, PVA/silane, PVA/urea and urea/silane on the mechanical, thermal, and physical properties of KPNC were also investigated in this study. The chemical treatments enhanced the mechanical, thermal and physical properties of KPNC which combination of urea/silane produced the best results.,Ph.D
Pages:	173
Call Number:	TS1548.7.P6.N636 2020 tesis
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Faculty of Science and Technology / Fakulti Sains dan Teknologi

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