Paper Title
Effect Of Flexural And Thermal Properties Of Sustainable Kenaf Fibre And Rice Husk With Mineral Filled Pp Hybrid Composite
Abstract
Hybrid composite is of value added composite for industrial demand, hybrid composite has optimised and
balance properties to encounter some disadvantages exhibited by individual fillers. Sustainable fillers are much needed by
industry, which are from waste agriculture or plant origin. They can be sourced fillers incorporated with mineral fillers to
form thermoplastic hybrid composite. PP composite utilizing individual fillers such as CaCO3, kenaf or rice husk have been
investigated. Hybrid composite properties such as flexural and thermal properties are analysed in this study. Hybrid
composite fabrication using both sustainable plant origin kenaf fiber and agricultural waste, rice husk particulate
incorporated with calcium carbonate (CaCO3) into polypropylene (PP) was extruded by utilizing twin screw compounder.
Using fixed ratios of PP and CaCO3, hybrid composite with various compositions of kenaf fiber and rice husk particulate
were compounded with kenaf fibres in ranges between 5% up to 35% and rice husk 5% up to 30% by weight. In this study,
the incorporation of kenaf/rice husk/CaCO3/PP hybrid composite on mechanical and thermal properties were investigated.
The thermal stability of the component was examined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning
Calorimetry (DSC). The DSC results showed some changes in melting temperature (Tm), crystallization temperature (Tc)
and the degree of crystallinity (XC) with the incorporation of hybrid fillers. Thermal gravimetric analysis ( TGA ) indicated
thermal stability of hybrid composite filled with both kenaf fiber and rice husk particulate.
Keywords— Kenaf Fibre, Rice Husk, Hybrid Composite, Flexural properties, Thermal properties.