The largest industrial crop in Malaysia is the oil palm which is also the major contributor of agricultural waste. Oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF) is the third largest solid waste produced from the oil palm industry, accounted to 11 million ton per year. It is currently used for fuel-burner or as mulch, however is inefficiently utilized. One of the alternative way to manage OPMF is to produce biocomposite by blending with polyolefin such as polypropylene (PP). The drawbacks of using natural fiber in PP-biocomposite production due to poor adhesion and dispersion of the hydrophilic fiber within the hydrophobic PP can be overcome by using compatibilizer. In this study, the compatibility of PP/OPMF biocomposite with and without the use of compatibilizer was compared. Mechanical, morphological and thermal properties of the biocomposites were determined.  It was found that the addition of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) to the PP/OPMF biocomposite at 3 wt.% improved the compatibility of the fiber to the polymer.. Tensile strength of PP/OPMF/MAPP biocomposite was improved by 20 - 80 % compared to PP/OPMF biocomposite at 20 - 40 % fiber loading . Unexpectedly at 50wt% of fiber loading, the tensile strength of PP/OPMF/MAPP biocomposite is comparable to those having lower fiber loading. This result indicates that OPMF can be used as renewable filler for biocomposite application.

Potential of agricultural oil palm mesocarp fiber as filler for biocomposite

247th National Meeting (2014)

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