Open Access

ARTICLE

Sawdust Short Fiber Reinforced Epoxidized Natural Rubber: Insight on Its Mechanical, Physical, and Thermal Aspects

O. S. Dahham¹, N. Z. Noriman^1,2,*, H. Jaya¹, R. Hamzah¹, M. U. Umar^2,3, I. Johari⁴

1 Advanced Polymer Research, Faculty of Chemical Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), 02600 Pauh Putra Campus, Perlis, Malaysia
2 School of Housing Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden, Penang, 11800, Malaysia
3 JV Heritage Conservation & Technology Research Group (HEVEG), Penang, 11800, Malaysia
4 School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Penang, 14300, Malaysia

* Corresponding Author: N. Z. Noriman. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Renewable Polymer Materials and Their Application)

Journal of Renewable Materials 2020, 8(12), 1633-1645. https://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2020.011377

Received 04 May 2020; Accepted 30 June 2020; Issue published 12 November 2020

Abstract

In this work, Epoxidized natural rubber/sawdust short fiber (ENR-50/ SD) composites at different fiber content (5, 10, 15 and 20 phr) and size (fine size at 60–100 μm and coarse size at 10–20 mm) were prepared using two-roll mill and electrical-hydraulic hot press machine respectively. Curing characteristics, water uptake, tensile, morphological, physical, and thermal properties of the composites were investigated. Results indicated that the scorch time and cure time became shorter whereas torque improved as SD content increase. Though the decline of tensile strength and elongation at break values, modulus, hardness and crosslinking density have shown enhancements with the increasing of SD content. The water uptake percentage of all samples has shown an increasing as SD content increase. However, the low SD content, particularly fine size have presented lower water uptake. The temperature of weight% loss (5 and 50 wt% loss) of 5 phr SD (low content) have recorded higher temperature compared to 20 phr SD (high content) in the rubber composites, which indicated higher thermal stability. The fine size of SD has recorded better overall properties than SD coarse size at same loading in the rubber composites.

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Keywords

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