Abstract
Pineapple leaf fibers (PALF) are abundant to the agricultural products which are native to the tropical climate region. It also exhibit excellent tensile strength and tensile modulus. Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) copolymer possess several prominent properties such as strength, rigidity and toughness. Both ABS and PALF are at high risk to the fire hazard when used in daily life. The improvement of flame retardancy of composite materials has been the priority for the safety requirements of natural fiber composite products. This research is aimed to study the effect of two different phosphate compounded flame retardants i.e., bisphenol-A bis (diphenyl phosphate) (BDP) and 9, 10-Dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO) on the flammability, mechanical and thermal properties of the composites of modified natural pineapple leaf fiber reinforced acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. 10% by weight of such PALF was compounded with ABS using diisononyl phthalate 1% w/w as plasticizer at the different flame retardant concentration (10 and 20 wt.% of ABS). The effects of flame-retardants showed that the PALF/ABS composite containing DOPO showed enhanced performance in terms of flame retardancy and even act as self-extinguisher. Higher content of flame retardants led to increase limiting oxygen index value. Moreover, DOPO added composites produced superior mechanical properties such as young's modulus and tensile strength. Furthermore, both thermal degradation temperature of PALF/ABS composites with DOPO and thermal degradation temperature of PALF/ABS composites with BDP showed relatively lower temperature than the ones of PALF/ABS composites.