Mechanical Properties of PP/Glass Fiber/Kenaf/Bamboo Fiber-reinforced Hybrid Composite

Abstract

The present study deals with the effect of hybrid ratio on the mechanical properties and thermal properties of kenaf, bamboo fiber-reinforced hybrid polypropylene (PP) composites. The present work deals with the fabricating and characterization of PP/glass fiber/kenaf/bamboo fiber-reinforced composite. The composite of PP reinforced with kenaf, bamboo fiber and kenaf/bamboo fiber was made using injection molding technique. Different fiber loadings of 100, 75, 50, 25, 0 wt% kenaf/bamboo composites were also prepared. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were performed for non-mixed fiber and mixed compounds. By observing FE_SEM, the random directionality of fiber direction was reduced as the KF content increased, thus improving the physical characteristic value. Moreover, since the kenaf and bamboo were mixed with the pp, PP/glass fiber/kenaf/bamboo fiber-reinforced composite had better physical, morphological and mechanical properties. However, variations in tensile and impact properties depend on the mixing ratio. The mechanical properties of PP/glass fiber/kenaf/bamboo fiber-reinforced composite compared with those of non-mixed stand-alone were also measured. The mechanical properties were higher when 75 wt% kenaf/bamboo fibers were mixed. And the calculation of the volume fraction also showed the tendency of increasing mechanical properties according to the increasing proportion of fibers.