Functional Properties of Kenaf Bast Fibre Anhydride Modification Enhancement with Bionanocarbon in Polymer Nanobiocomposites

The miscibility between hydrophilic biofibre and hydrophobic matrix has been a challenge in developing polymer biocomposite. This study investigated the anhydride modification effect of propionic and succinic anhydrides on Kenaf fibre’s functional properties in vinyl ester bionanocomposites. Bionanocarbon from oil palm shell agricultural wastes enhanced nanofiller properties in the fibre-matrix interface via the resin transfer moulding technique. The succinylated fibre with the addition of the nanofiller in vinyl ester provided great improvement of the tensile, flexural, and impact strengths of 92.47 ± 1.19 MPa, 108.34 ± 1.40 MPa, and 8.94 ± 0.12 kJ m⁻², respectively than the propionylated fibre. The physical, morphological, chemical structural, and thermal properties of bionanocomposites containing 3% bionanocarbon loading showed better enhancement properties. This enhancement was associated with the effect of the anhydride modification and the nanofiller’s homogeneity in bionanocarbon-Kenaf fibre-vinyl ester bonding. It appears that Kenaf fibre modified with propionic and succinic anhydrides incorporated with bionanocarbon can be successfully utilised as reinforcing materials in vinyl ester matrix.

Bionanocarbon Functional Material Characterisation and Enhancement Properties in Nonwoven Kenaf Fibre Nanocomposites

Bionanocarbon as a properties enhancement material in fibre reinforced nanobiocomposite was investigated for sustainable material applications. Currently, an extensive study using the micro size of biocarbon as filler or reinforcement materials has been done. However, poor fibre-matrix interface results in poor mechanical, physical, and thermal properties of the composite. Hence in this study, the nanoparticle of biocarbon was synthesised and applied as a functional material and properties enhancement in composite material. The bionanocarbon was prepared from an oil palm shell, an agriculture waste precursor, via a single-step activation technique. The nanocarbon filler loading was varied from 0, 1, 3, and 5% as nanoparticle properties enhancement in nonwoven kenaf fibre reinforcement in vinyl ester composite using resin transfer moulding technique. The functional properties were evaluated using TEM, particle size, zeta potential, and energy dispersion X-ray (EDX) elemental analysis. While the composite properties enhancement was evaluated using physical, mechanical, morphological, thermal, and wettability properties. The result indicated excellent nanofiller enhancement of fibre-matrix bonding that significantly improved the physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of the bionanocomposite. The SEM morphology study confirmed the uniform dispersion of the nanoparticle enhanced the fibre-matrix interaction. In this present work, the functional properties of bionanocarbon from oil palm shells (oil palm industrial waste) was incorporated in nanaobiocomposite, which significantly enhance its properties. The optimum enhancement of the bionanocomposite functional properties was obtained at 3% bionanocarbon loading. The improvement can be attributed to homogeneity and improved interfacial interaction between nanoparticles, kenaf fibre, and matrix.

Propionic Anhydride Modification of Cellulosic Kenaf Fibre Enhancement with Bionanocarbon in Nanobiocomposites

The use of chemical modification of cellulosic fibre is applied in order to increase the hydrophobicity, hence improving the compatibility between the fibre and matrix bonding. In this study, the effect of propionic anhydride modification of kenaf fibre was investigated to determine the role of bionanocarbon from oil palm shell agricultural wastes in the improvement of the functional properties of bionanocomposites. The vinyl esters reinforced with unmodified and propionic anhydride modified kenaf fibres bio nanocomposites were prepared using 0, 1, 3, 5 wt% of bio-nanocarbon. Characterisation of the fabricated bionanocomposite was carried out using FESEM, TEM, FT-IR and TGA to investigate the morphological analysis, surface properties, functional and thermal analyses, respectively. Mechanical performance of bionanocomposites was evaluated according to standard methods. The chemical modification of cellulosic fibre with the incorporation of bionanocarbon in the matrix exhibited high enhancement of the tensile, flexural, and impact strengths, for approximately 63.91%, 49.61% and 54.82%, respectively. The morphological, structural and functional analyses revealed that better compatibility of the modified fibre–matrix interaction was achieved at 3% bionanocarbon loading, which indicated improved properties of the bionanocomposite. The nanocomposites exhibited high degradation temperature which signified good thermal stability properties. The improved properties of the bionanocomposite were attributed to the effect of the surface modification and bionanocarbon enhancement of the fibre–matrix networks.