Thermal Degradation and Water Absorption Behaviors of Oil Palm Fruit Bunch (OPFB) Fiber and its Composites

Abstract

This paper investigates the thermal degradation and water absorption behaviours of OPFB composites and OPFB hybrid composites at different OPFB size. The result shows that TGA test can be used to estimate the percentage of filler in the composites. Incorporation of OPFB in PP has decreased the degradation temperature of composites. Water absorption test was conducted on OPFB composites at different OPFB size, which showed that higher OPFB size tend to absorb more water due to its pores structure. Most OPFB/PP composites reach water saturation at about the same time which was on the 150th days with about 3.0% - 3.5% water uptake. The presence of nanoclay in OPFB/PP composite has increased the water uptake of about 9%.