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The tensile properties of single sugar palm(Arenga pinnata) fibreTo cite this article: D Bachtiar et al 2010 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 11 012012

 

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The tensile properties of single sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) fibre

D. Bachtiar1,*, S. M. Sapuan1, E. S. Zainudin1, A. Khalina2 and K.Z.M. Dahlan3 1Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

2Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

3Radiation Processing Division, Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Bangi, 40300, Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

*E-mail: dandibachtiar@gmail.com

Abstract. This paper presents a brief description and characterization of the sugar palm fibres, still rare in the scientific community, compared to other natural fibres employed in polymeric composites. Sugar palm fibres are cellulose-based fibres extracted from the Arenga pinnata plant. The characterization consists of tensile test and the morphological examination. The average tensile properties results of fibres such as Young’s modulus is equal to 3.69 GPa, tensile strength is equal to 190.29 MPa, and strain at failure is equal to 19.6%.

1. Introduction Currently, exciting works on natural fibres as reinforcing agents in polymer composites are triggered by the modern vision on green technology. The future developments of material technology are based on the term ‘back to nature’. Then, researchers and academia search the opportunities in finding new environmentally and friendly materials as alternatives to inorganic materials especially polymeric composite materials. Some kinds of natural fibre performance for reinforcing the polymer composites, like sisal, jute, hemp, coir, pineapple leaf, and oil palm have been documented in literature [1].

Natural fibre that is still has little attention by researchers is sugar palm fibre. This fibre is traditionally used in wide range of application covering from broom, paintbrush, septic tank base filter, clear water filter, doormat, carpet, rope, chair/sofa cushion, and for fish nest to hatch its eggs [2], and for roof because of its strength and durability. This fibre is extracted from the sugar palm plant, a member of Palmae family.

The sugar palm plant is a fast growing palm reaching maturity in 10 years. It has become a permanent fixture throughout the world and a most economically important plant in Asia. Geographical distribution of sugar palm covers the Indo-Malay archipelago and can be found in all of tropical South and Southeast Asia countries, from India to Guam and from Myanmar to Nusa Tenggara Timur in Indonesia. Its great versatility makes it one of the oldest cultivated plants [3]. It is used for construction materials, sugar, sago, wine, alcohol, fibre, thatch and many other products. This plant exhibits the tall palm with long leaves and decorative trunk fibre. The plantations of sugar palm plant have not been full developed yet because of several reasons. However, recent development shows there is a new way to cultivation the sugar palm plant effectively. The first sugar palm factory

9th National Symposium on Polymeric Materials (NSPM 2009) IOP PublishingIOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 11 (2010) 012012 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/11/1/012012

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in the world has been built in Tomohon, Indonesia [4]. Once the plantation of sugar palms is growing, there will be high availability of sugar palm fibres as by-product.

Figure 1. Bundles of sugar palm fibres. Understanding the mechanical characteristics of sugar palm fibres is important if their potential use

as reinforcement for polymer composites were to be explored. The exact values of mechanical properties of fibres can give comprehensive insight when tailoring the composites and predicting the properties of composites. This paper studies the tensile properties of sugar palm fibres and compares the results with various natural fibres.

2. Material and methods

2.1. Preparation of sugar palm fibres The sugar palm fibres (see Figure 1) were collected from Aceh, Indonesia; retting process was applied in order to separate the stalk from the core of the sugar palm fibres. In this process, bundles of sugar palm fibres were soaked in a water tank until the dirt vanished from the core section and the stalk was separated from the core. The sugar palm fibre stalks were occasionally stirred to facilitate the separation process. Water was changed several times in order to reduce the dirt resulted from the retting process. Before sugar palm fibres were used, they were dried for about two weeks in room temperature, as are done traditionally.

2.2 Single fibre tensile test Single fibre tensile test was conducted based on the ASTM standard (ASTM D3379) for single fibre tensile test. A single fibre was attached to a cardboard frame shown in Figure 2. The specimen was then tested for tensile test with a 10 kN load-cell equipped Instron 3366. After securing the specimen in the grips, the cardboard frame was cut along the cutting line and the fibre was then loaded until it was fractured. The gauge length was 25 mm with a crosshead speed of 2 mm/min. A number of 25 specimens were tested.

9th National Symposium on Polymeric Materials (NSPM 2009) IOP PublishingIOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 11 (2010) 012012 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/11/1/012012

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Figure 2. Specimen for single tensile test.

2.3 Simple method to measure the diameter Measuring the diameter of the fibre was carried out using the weighing method. One fibre was cut with the length of 50 mm and weighted by analytical balance (0.1 mg. accuracy). Simplification is made with the assumption that fibre was exactly circular. Using the same equipment, the density of that 50 mm long fibre was measured based on ASTM Standard D792-00. The relationship between density (ρ) in gr./cm3, mass of fibre (m) in gr., and diameter (D) in cm are obtained by the equations:

Volume of the fibre,

(1)

Density of the fibre,

(2)

If the length of the fibre, l is 5 cm, density of the fibre is 1.29 gr./cm3, then we can calculate the

diameter of the fibre, D in cm with the formula:

(3)

The result was verified by using optical microscope, and the values are almost the same.

2.4 Morphology analysis Fibre morphology was examined by scanning electron microscopy (PHILIPS XL30). As alternative view of surface of sugar palm fibre, it was also examined using a high-resolution optical camera.

9th National Symposium on Polymeric Materials (NSPM 2009) IOP PublishingIOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 11 (2010) 012012 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/11/1/012012

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3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Images of the sugar palm fibre Figure 3 presents the images of the surface of sugar palm fibre using two types optical equipment. The first (a) shows the colour view of the surface and the second (b) shows the result view from SEM micrograph. One may see that a layer of substances, which may include pectin and other impurities, covers the surface of the sugar palm fibre. The surface is not smooth, spread with nodes and irregular stripes. One specific style of the surface is the evidence of the small holes along the surfaces. It is predicted can give a mechanical benefit when the fibre combine with the resin matrices. The holes expected can be a mechanical interlocking media between the fibre and the polymer matrices.

(a) (b)

Figure 3. Photographs of single sugar palm fibre using: (a) optical camera, (b) SEM.

3.2 Fibre tensile properties Tensile strength, tensile modulus and strain of the sugar palm fibre are given in Table 1. It is the average value of the 25 samples of the sugar palm fibres with variation of diameter from 99 to 311 µm.

In comparing the performance of sugar palm fibre with other natural fibres it can be seen that although sugar palm fibre strength lower than curaua and nettle fibres, the tensile strength shows the moderate value and almost the same with the strength of coir, kenaf, bamboo and hemp fibres (in the range of 138.7 – 270 MPa). It means there is a possibility of using sugar palm fibre as reinforcement for polymer composites.

The modulus behaviour of sugar palm fibre gave the lowest value compared to other fibres and it indicates the level of stiffness of the fibres. In addition, the strain of sugar palm fibre gave the highest value compared to others. From this, it is noticed that sugar palm fibre is more flexible than the other natural fibres.

Stress at break and Young's modulus of the fibres decrease when the fibre diameter increases [15]. This probably the reason why the sugar palm fibres (with 99 – 311 µm) have lower value compared to nettle and curaua fibres (with 19.9 – 100 µm). Natural fibres generally have a channel in their centre called the lumen [6]. For practical reasons, the fibres are considered to be perfect cylinders. The lumen is not taken into account in this study since it is difficult to determine its dimensions. Consequently, when the fibre diameter increases the lumen size is also higher and it decreases the stress at break and modulus values.

9th National Symposium on Polymeric Materials (NSPM 2009) IOP PublishingIOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 11 (2010) 012012 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/11/1/012012

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Table 1. The mechanical and physical properties of sugar palm fibre and some other fibres

Natural fibre

Density, gr./cm3

Tensile strength,

MPa

Tensile modulus,

GPa Strain, % Diameter,

µm Ref.

Sugar palm 1.29 190,29

(46.77) 3.69 (0.54) 19.6 (6.7) 99 - 311 current study

Curaua 1.33 665-1404 20-36 2-3 49-100 [5]

Nettle 1.53 1594 (640) 87 (28) 2.11 (0.81) 19.9 (4.4) [6]

Hemp 1.48 270 (40) 19.1 (4.3) 0.8 (0.1) 31.2 (4.9) [7]

Hemp 1.48 550-900 73 1.6 [8]

Jute 1.18 393-773 26.5 1.8 200 [9]

Coir 1.25 138.7 6 10.5 396.98 (67.93) [10,11]

Kenaf 1.4 215.4 13-17 1.18-1.31 [12,13]

Bamboo 0.6 – 0.8 200.5 (7.08) 10.2 [14]

E-Glass 2.55 1800 - 3000 72 - 83 3 8 -14 [8] ( ) refer to standard deviation 4. Conclusions The attempt to search for new eco-friendly materials is a challenge. Sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) has many interesting properties. The whole plant can be used in construction materials, sugar, sagoo, wine, alcohol, fibre, thatch and many other products. This study proves that sugar palm fibres have good tensile properties and could also be suitable as reinforcing agents in composite materials. The average tensile properties namely a Young's modulus is equal to 3.69 GPa, tensile strength is equal to 190.29 MPa, and strain at failure is equal to 19.6%.

Acknowledgement The authors wish to thank the assistance of Mr. Wildan Ilyas Mohamad Ghazali in carrying out the experimental work and Universiti Putra Malaysia for the financial assistance through a Graduate Research Fellowship for the principal author.

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9th National Symposium on Polymeric Materials (NSPM 2009) IOP PublishingIOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 11 (2010) 012012 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/11/1/012012

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