Abstract
The aim of this work was to study the effect of chemical surface modifications on empty fruit bunch oil palm fibre/polypropylene composite properties. By FTIR spectra, propionylated fibre and PPgMA-modified fibre showed the presence of a carbonyl group of esters while vinyltrimethoxysilane-treated fibre showed a peak of silicate, confirming that the modifications were successful. PPgMAmodified fibre PP composite at fibre content 20% demonstrated the highest modulus of 0.71 GPa while the modulus of unmodified fibre PP composite was 0.56 GPa. By DSC analysis, PPgMA-modified fibre and vinyltrimethoxysilane-treated fibre PP composite at the same fibre content of 5% showed the highest crystallinity of 46% and 44% respectively whereas unmodified fibre PP composite showed a lower crystallinity of 38%. The DMTA analysis showed that after 60°C, the modified fibre PP composites exhibited a higher stiffness than pure polypropylene.
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