Tensile Properties of Treated and Untreated Paddy Straw Fiber Using Sodium Hydroxide Strengthened with Polypropylene Resin

Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia

^a Corresponding author : masni@uthm.edu.my

Abstract

This paper focus on the effect of alkaline treatment by using sodium hydroxide on the tensile properties of paddy straw fibers strengthened with polypropylene resin. Two types of paddy straw fibers were used which are MR219 and MR220. The paddy straw fibers were prepared in two conditions as untreated and treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 5% for 24 hours and then dried at 80°C for another 24 hours. For sampling process, these fibers were weighted according to 5% and 10% mass fraction. A total of 16 samples were prepared for this study based on ASTM D638 and tensile test was conducted by using ASTM D5083. The result showed that paddy straw fiber treated with NaOH had gain higher ultimate tensile strength compared to untreated paddy straw fiber where the highest ultimate tensile strength for the fibers is recorded at 10% of MR219 fiber with value of 2.0230 kN and 3.677 mm displacement were recorded. The highest strain were recorded by the same fibers with an average value of 5.253% and obtained the Young’s modulus up to 1110 MPa. However, the Young’s modulus which has been obtained by the same fibers was decreased with the percentage difference of 40%.