Effect of alkaline treatment on decomposition temperature of fibres from empty oil palm bunch

Abstract

—This article reports an investigation of the decomposition temperature of fibres from empty oil palm bunch to achieve improved understanding of the processing temperature limitation of this fibre as reinforcement for thermoplastic composite manufacturing. The effect of alkaline treatments on their chemical decomposition and sample weight changes were performed, using fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and thermogravimetry (TG) techniques. The results show that the hemicellulose removal of fibres after treatment is a factor that provides an advantage on the thermal stability of the fibres. Both initial decomposition temperature (T0) and maximum decomposition temperature (Tmax) are minor increase. This could reduce the detrimental effect of thermal degradation on the single fibre performance and leads to shift its consolidation temperature ceiling from below 221oC (untreated fibres) to 243oC (5% NaOH treated fibres) during composite consolidation.