Performance of compatibilizers on polypropylene with recycled acrylonitrile butadiene rubber and sugarcane bagasse towards thermal,chemical and mechanical properties

Abstract

Performance of the thermal, chemical and mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP)/recycled acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (r-NBR)/sugarcane bagasse (SCB) composites with the occurrence of Trans-Polyoctylene Rubber (TOR) and Bisphenol A Diglycidyl Ether (DGEBA) as compatibilizers are evaluated. 3 (3) different composites (80/20/15, 60/40/15, and 40/60/15), with fixed filler (15 phr) and compatibilizers (10 phr) content, were carried out. Other than that, these composites were arranged via melt mixing technique utilizing a heated two-roll mill at a temperature of 180°C for 9 min employing a 15-rpm rotor speed. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis, tensile and morphological properties were evaluated. The result recorded thermal properties of TOR composites showed increments by 2.65% and 5.75% for a temperature of 70% of materials’ weight (T_70%) and peak degradation temperature (T_deg), respectively. Meanwhile, the DGEBA compatibilizer composite has a higher increment of thermal properties by 3.17%, T_70% and 5.94%, T_deg. The stretching vibration peaks of the NBR’s C≡N group of about 2400 – 2200 were not found for compatibilized composites. Apart from that, the tensile strength dropped as the r-NBR content rises. Nevertheless, subsequent compatibilization reveals that the composites’ tensile properties were greater than control composites. The morphology discovered validates the tensile properties, indicating a stronger interaction between the PP/SCB and r-NBR composites with the addition of compatibilizer DGEBA.