Recently, the development of green composites has been gaining more interest and attention due to the depleting petroleum reserves and environmental awareness. Natural fiber is the one of green fillers with high strength that can be used to reinforce polymer materials. Short and fine pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) has been successfully developed by our research group at Mahidol University, and has been used to reinforce polypropylene (PP), nylon, Santoprene and also nitrile rubber effectively. Natural rubber (NR), one of Thailand’s top exports, was chosen as the matrix for fiber reinforcement in this study. The major component of NR is high molecular weight <i>cis</i>-1,4-polyisoprene polymeric movable chains. Due to the difference in polarities between NR and PALF, the adhesion and hence stress transfer between them is low. In this study, the stress transfer between NR and PALF was enhanced by silane treatment of the fiber. Since PALF would improve the mechanical properties only at low deformation, carbon black was also incorporated into NR/surface-treated PALF composite to improve mechanical properties at high deformation.<br/><br/>The fiber was first treated with sodium hydroxide solution to clean out non-cellulosic substances on the fiber surface. After that, the treated fiber was treated with silane-69, which is a silane containing sulfur atoms. Silane-69 allows chemical bonding between the fiber and the rubber matrix to form during the vulcanization process. This would thus improve the stress transfer between the NR matrix and PALF. The results on XPS for successful fiber surface modification and stress-strain curves for mechanical properties improvement will be reported and discussed.

Mechanical properties improvement of natural rubber/pineapple leaf fiber composites: Effects of silane treatment of fiber and incorporation of carbon black

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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