Study on Utilization of Palm Frond for Wood Plastic Composite

摘要

Palm frond waste is a lignoselulose material that is abundant availability in Indonesia. The material has potential to be used as raw material for wood plastic composite material (WPC). The purpose of this reseach was to study the effect of levels of treated palm frond (TPF) and maleated polypropylene (MAPP) compatibilizer to the properties and morphology of the palm frond-based WPC. As thermoplastic component was used polypropylene (PP). Extractable components from palm fronds removed with water washing and drying. The WPC samples were prepared by mixing PP, TPF, MAPP and paraffin in the internal mixer at temperature of 170℃ and rotor speed of 80 rpm for 15 minutes. The mass ratio of PP/TPF was varied with 50/50, 60/40 and 70/30 w/w. The MAPP levels was varied with 0%, 4% and 5% w/w. Paraffin was used as a palsticizer with a level of 2% w/w. The testing included tensile and flexural properties by using universal testing machine (UTM) according to ASTM D-678 and ASTM D-790 standards, respectively. Other testing also conducted for morphology by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and water adsorption test. The result indicate that the best properties of the WPC sample obtained at PP/TPF mass ratio of 60/40 w/w and MAPP level of 5% w/w, with tensile strength of 156 kgf/cm~2 and flexural strength of 598 kgf/cm~2 with water adsorption of 1.4% w/w.