Degradation behaviour of pineapple leaf fibre reinforced poly lactic acid under stimulated conditions

Chan, Hui Teng (2018) Degradation behaviour of pineapple leaf fibre reinforced poly lactic acid under stimulated conditions. Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

The aim of this work was to study the degradation behaviour of pineapple leaf fibre (PALF) reinforced poly lactic acid (PLA) under stimulated conditions. Hydrolytic degradation and soil degradation were used to evaluate tensile strength, thermal properties and morphological analysis of PLA/PALF composites. The result showed that tensile strength is highest at 70 wt. % fibre loading which is 209.32 MPa compared to neat PLA with only 33.56MPa. The ultimate tensile strength were reduced at 40 wt. % and 70 wt. % of PALF which were from 143.20MPa to 69.71MPa and 209.32 MPa to 99.64MPa while the neat PLA was too brittle for testing after hydrolytic degradation. In differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) testing, 70 wt. % PALF composite achieved the highest thermal properties with Tg=66.3°C, Tm=158.8°C and 17.4% of crystallinity compared to neat PLA with Tg=64.8°C, Tm=152.9°C and 11.8% of crystallinity. After hydrolytic degradation, thermal properties of 70 wt. % of PALF reduced slightly with Tg=65.5°C, Tm=153.8°C and 8.9% of crystallinity whereas there is drastically reduction in neat PLA which were Tg=32.7°C, Tm=137.8 °C and 2.6% of crystallinity. This indicated that PLA and PALF were influenced by hydrolytic process. For the soil degradation, 70 wt. % PALF composite undergoing rapid degradation followed by 40 wt. % PALF and neat PLA. This can be proven by highest weight loss achieved by 70 wt. % PALF (5.39%), 40 wt. % PALF (3.41%) and neat PLA (0.51%) at the end of 90 days.

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