The Weathering Effect in Natural Environment on KenafBast Filled Unsaturated Polyester Composite and Integration of Nano Zinc particle for Water Repellent

Title:The Weathering Effect in Natural Environment on KenafBast Filled Unsaturated Polyester Composite and Integration of Nano Zinc particle for Water Repellent

Volume: 9 Issue: 1

Author(s): Mohammed Mohammed, A. R. Rozyanty*, Azlin Fazlina Osman, Tijjani Adam, U. Hashim, Aeshah Muhana Mohammed, N. Z. Noriman, Omar S. Dahham and Bashir O. Betar

Affiliation:

• Center of Excellence Geopolymer and Green Technology, School of Materials Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), 01007, P.O Box 77, D/A PejabatPosBesar, Kangar, Perlis,Malaysia

Keywords: Kenaffiber, zinc oxide, unsaturated polyester, weathering, composite, mechanical properties, nanorod.

Abstract: Objective: A Kenaf composite was prepared by using hand lay-up process. The effect of weather on mechanical, morphology and thermal properties of kenaf composite was studied.

Method: Tensile strength of kenaf composite was found to be 60 MPa. Unfortunately, tensile strength of the composite started decreasing after the first weathering month which continued throughout the weathering periods with constant reduction of tensile, reducing almost 85% of the composite mechanical behaviour at the end of the weathering period.

Result: The resulting mechanical properties obtained clearly showed that natural fiber and its composites are not able to stand environmental condition because they have poor wettability, incompatibility with some polymeric matrices and high moisture absorption. Due to the high moisture absorption properties, there are formations of void in the composites which can reduce the mechanical properties of composite such as flexural strength or flexural modulus clearly supported by SEM results.

Conclusion: It was found that the degree of moisture absorption increased as the exposure time increased. The tensile and flexural properties of kenaf fiber were found decreasing due to moisture induced degradation and the degradation was significant after 2 months. Fortunately, some modifications can be done for improving the mechanical properties, thus, integration of zinc nano particle is proposed; the water repellent capability is good enough to achieve the high performance of the composite with proper system formulation during the modification process and the result of Zinc nano particle reinforced kenaf fiber was shown to have prevented the degradation of the composite.

Cite this article as:

Mohammed Mohammed , Rozyanty R. A. *, Osman Fazlina Azlin , Adam Tijjani , Hashim U. , Mohammed Muhana Aeshah , Noriman Z. N., Dahham S. Omar and Betar O. Bashir , The Weathering Effect in Natural Environment on KenafBast Filled Unsaturated Polyester Composite and Integration of Nano Zinc particle for Water Repellent, Micro and Nanosystems 2017; 9 (1) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1876402909666170531075138