Treatment Time Influence of Alkali Upon it's Characteristics for the Palm Oil Plant Fiber Composites

Natural fiber finds better inter-facial interaction with the matrix when treated with chemical agents. With this knowledge, a sodium hydroxide (or Alkali) treatment was used to treat the fiber gotten from Oil Palm Fruit. Between 0 and 6 hours, the fiber got submerged in the solution of alkaline at various intervals. The optimal soaking time was determined through investigating their influence on the physical and mechanical features of the polyester resin composite, reinforced with fiber at various immersion period of time. The composite was prepared by hand-laying it up. At an optimum soaking time of 6 hours, maximum tension strength (8.496 MPa) and impact strength (84.605 j/m2 ) were obtained, while the untreated material gave 7.012 MPa and 113.684 j/m2 , respectively. The maximum bending modulus (4487.867 MPa) and strength (104.312 MPa) were obtained at 4 hours of soaking time, as their untreated counterparts gave 41.007 MPa and 5026.187 MPa, respectively.The result of the SEM showed better fiber-matrix surface adhesion in the untreated fiber than in the treated fiber. The TGA/DTA results revealed an improvement in the composite's thermal stability at 450oC. The fibers had a higher proportion of crystallinity, according to the XRD test. These findings demonstrated that, at various ideal soaking times, NaOH treatment enhanced the characteristics of oil palm fruit fibers