The Effect of Binder on Mechanical Properties of Kenaf Fibre/Polypropylene Composites Using Full Factorial Method

The effect of maleated polypropylene (MAPP) as binder on the mechanical properties of kenaf fibre/polypropylene (KF/PP) composites is studied. Ratios between kenaf fibre and PP having 10:90, 30:70 and 50:50 in weight ratio were selected. Further, MAPP having 1, 3 and 5 percent in percentage of weight ratio was mixed in KF/PP composites. Hot press machine was used to produce tensile test samples of KF/PP composites. The mechanical properties that are tensile strength, tensile modulus and elongation at break of KF-PP composites were obtained from tensile test result. It is found that the tensile strength and tensile modulus increase with increasing the kenaf fibre loading and higher percentage of MAPP. Further, the elongation at break for KF/PP composites shows lower result when increasing of kenaf fibre loading. However, when percentage of MAPP added in KF/PP composites increases, the elongation at break increased slightly. Thus, result shows that kenaf fibre/PP composites with binder were better in tensile strength, tensile modulus however the elongation at break shows weak result unless the binder was added.

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