Abstract:
Palm trees are one of Thai economic crops used to produce palm oil for consumption. Consequently, there are plenty of empty fruit bunch and palm fibers residues. This research aimed to study the effects of polymer blends between poly(lactic acid)(PLA), poly(butylene succiness)(PBS) and empty fruit bunch palm fibers on mechanical and thermal properties.
The preparation included mixing poly(lactic acid)(PLA) and poly(butylene succiness)(PBS) at the ratio of 90:10. Then 1, 3 and 5 % (wt.) of empty fruit bunch palm fibers were added. These fibers were and were not treated their surface using 5% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 100°C for 1 hour. The polymer blends were mixed by twin screw extruder at 190°C and then compressed by compression molding at 190°C.
The results revealed that the 3% polymer blends of treated surface caused PLA/PBS to be durable to strength, higher young modulus, but had no impact on hardness in the mechanical properties. However, these fiber contents had no effect on thermal properties.