Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene Composites with Different Reinforced Natural Fibers – A Comparative Study

Abstract

Developing environmentally friendly and recyclable natural fiber-reinforced polymer composites has recently attracted researchers’ attention and interest. Herein, a comparative study was conducted to compare the mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP) composites with different natural fiber reinforcement, including palm fiber (Arenga pinnata), rice straw (Oryza sativa), coconut husk (Cocos mucifera), old world forked fern leaves (dicranopteris linearis), and snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata). This study aimed to compare the influence of the five natural fiber materials on the tensile strength and flexural strength of PP composites. The natural fibers were chemically treated with a 5% NaOH solution for 2.5 hours. In the preparation of composites, polypropylene as the matrix is heated to 300 °C and mixed randomly with natural fibers. The test results indicate that the composite with the highest tensile strength (38% higher than the lowest) and flexural strength (102% higher than the lowest) is obtained using the PP composite with reinforced rice straw fiber. In contrast, the PP composites with palm fiber have the lowest tensile strength (72% from the highest tensile strength) and the lowest flexural strength (UFSmin) (62% from the highest flexural strength) corresponds to the PP composites with coconut fiber. This study revealed that the flexural strength of all composite samples was greater than that of pure PP.