Material Treatment of Polypropylene (PP) / Recycle Acrylonitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBrr) and Banana Skin Powder (BSP) using Thermal Mixing Techniques

Abstract

One of the most significant current discussions in material properties is the chemical treatment effect on the proposed materials. In this paper, the effects of NaOH and α-APS silane treatments on the characteristics, thermal and mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP)/recycled acrylonitrile butadiene (NBRr)/ banana skin powder (BSP) experimented. The thermal mixing process by heated two roll mills was used to melt mix the composites at a temperature of 180 ̊C to produce six different fiber loading (70/30/5, 70/30/10, 70/30/15, 70/30/20, 70/30/25 and 70/30/30w/w). The effects of NaOH and α-APS silane treatment on PP/NBRr/BSP composites were analyzed using Tensile Test, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Water Uptake and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The results showed that α-APS silane treated PP/NBRr/BSP composites has better improvement on mechanical properties when compared to the NaOH treated PP/NBRr/BSP composites, followed by the weakest mechanical properties of untreated PP/NBRr/BSP composites. These were due to good compatibility and stronger interaction between Si-O-Si moieties with the surface of fiber for α-APS silane treated BSP. The mechanical properties of PP/NBRr/BSP composites improve with decreasing BSP filler loading. This was due to better interfacial adhesion between both α-APS silane and NaOH treated BSP filler with PP/NBRr matrices while decreasing BSP filler loading. Furthermore, the chemical interactions in the composite before and after treatments were also investigated.