The Effect of Multiple Surface Treatments on Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) Fibre Structure

Abstract

The key objective of this work was to study the effect of multiple surface treatments on the oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibres. To achieve this purpose, the OPEFB fibres were treated with the sodium hydroxide (NaOH) (3%), silane (2%), a combination of NaOH (3%) and silane (2%) (NaOH+silane), and NaOH (3%) prior silane (2%) (NaOH-silane). The soaking time was standardized for 7 hours. The multiple treated and untreated fibres were subjected to single fibre test and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The single fibre tests were performed according to ASTM D3822-07 standard using INSTRON Micro tester while microscopy was observed by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) TM3000. The result shows that the treated fibres with 3% concentration of NaOH have achieved the maximum ultimate tensile stress of 82.04 MPa compared with other treatment and untreated fibre.