Flammability, Biodegradability and Mechanical Properties of Bio-Composites Waste Polypropylene/Kenaf Fiber Containing Nano CaCO3 with Diammonium Phosphate

AbstractBio-composites base on waste polypropylene (rPP) and kenaf fibre (KF) using coupling agent acrylic acid (AA), and crosslinker divinylbenzene (DVB) containing nano CaCO3 (nCC) with and without DAP as a mixture fire retardant (FR) was successfully processed in melt. Flammability of bio-composite was horizontally burning tested, according to ASTM D635. To study the nature of its biodegradability, the bio-composites were technically buried in garbage dump land. The tensile strength properties of bio-composites were measured according to ASTM D638 type V. Effect of 20% total weight flame-retardant [nCC+DAP] ratio 7:13 can effectively reduce the burning rate (BR) up to 54% compared to bio-composites without any fire retardant. Biodegradability of bio-composite rPP/DVB/AA/KF/[nCC+DAP] was examined by burying the bio-composite specimens in the garbage soil during four months. The biodegradability of bio-composite was measured by the losing weight (LW) of bio-composite specimens after burying in the soil for four months, it was found up to 11.82%. However, the present of [nCC+DAP] in the bio–composites can marginally decreasing the tensile strength (TS), compared to that of without FR