Biocomposite from Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene Polymer and Kenaf Whole Stem Fibre: Mechanical Properties

Abstract

Mechanical properties of formulated biocomposite between acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) polymer and kenaf whole stem (KWS) fibre have been investigated. This work has been done by alternating the KWSfibre loading with aim to propose the best formulation for preparing ABS/kenafbiocompositeby referring to its mechanical properties with the addition of processing aid.KWS fiber loading up from 10% to 50% are considered in this work and evaluated. It was found that by increasing the KWS fibre loading, the Young’s and flexural modulus of the ABS/kenafbiocomposite was subsequently increased too. Interestingly, the biocomposite strength decreased considerably while the impact strength drops significantly. ABS/kenafbiocomposite with 50% KWSfibre loading (C-50/50) has showed better performance compared to other formulation. However, a higher fibre loading was not considered presently as difficulties during compounding process are to be anticipated.