The effect of fibre loading on the physical and mechanical properties of Pineapple Leaf Fibre-reinforced biodegradable composites

Abstract

Recently, research on the development of biodegradable material were performed. However, biodegradable materials have a crucial weakness in terms of mechanical properties, but it can be improved by adding reinforcement material as filler. In this study, Pineapple Leaf Fibre(PALF) was chosen as filler due to its many advantages, such as low cost, variety and redundant sources and bio-degradable. The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of PALF fibre loading to the corn starch composites in terms of physical, mechanical and morphological properties. The samples were prepared at different fibre loadings: 5 wt%, to70 wt %, and were fabricated by using the hot press machine. The result showed that physical properties, such as density, water absorption and moisture content, were affected by different fibre loadings. Mechanical properties of the composite samples showed that PALF with 30 wt% gave the optimum tensile strength and modulus. Morphological analysis, composite samples of 30 wt% PALF fibre loading had fewer gaps between matrix and fibre. It can be concluded that 30 wt% of fibre loading is the optimum fibre loading for 3cm length PALF as compared to other composition ratios.