Pineapple Leaves Short Fiber Reinforced Natural Rubber Composites

Study on the pineapple leaf fiber reinforced natural rubber compositePineapple leaf fiber (PALF) reinforced natural rubber (NR) composite was carried out, which have good mechanical properties. The PALF was treated with alkali (NaOH) solution. The raw PALF and alkali PALF were analyzed with IR and STA. The effects of fiber loading, fiber orientation and fiber treatmet on the mechanical properties were studied . The RPA , DMA and STA were used to study the composite's rheology properties, dynamic mechanical properties, glass transition and thermal properties.The alkali PALF fibers were more steady than the raw PALF fibers. The viscosity of the composites increased according to the fiber loading, therefore the composite with more fibers were difficult to milling. The composite's normal mechanical properties, such as hardness, modulus, tensile strength, tear strength were found to increase by the introduction of fiber. The RH and MG latex adhesion systems make the composite have better properties. When the fibers in the composite is more than 30% there is a yield point in the stress-strain curve. The composite's glass transition point (Tg) increased with the fiber content.In a lower temperature range (-80 - 10) , the mechanical loss factor (Tan 8 ) of the composite reduced when fiber content is more. In a higher temperature range (60~130), Tan 6 increased with increasing fiber. The RH system composite and MG adhesion composite have a lower Tan 8 than the untreated composite. In different fiber orientations, Tan 8 of parallel composite is higher than that of vertical. There are two radiative peaks in the DSC curves of NR and PALF/NR composite. The main weight loss in TG pictures are in 300 400.