Investigation of environmental effects on cotton albumen composite /
Research on the production of composite from natural fiber and renewable raw materials has generated an enormous attention due to environmental awareness that they can be safely disposed after use without polluting the environment. In order to give an idea on the resistance, durability, sustainabili...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Kuala Lumpur :
Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia,
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://studentrepo.iium.edu.my/handle/123456789/4920 |
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| Summary: | Research on the production of composite from natural fiber and renewable raw materials has generated an enormous attention due to environmental awareness that they can be safely disposed after use without polluting the environment. In order to give an idea on the resistance, durability, sustainability and reliability of the composite during application at indoors or outdoors, it is important to study the environmental effects on composite. This project focused on studying the environmental effects on cotton albumen composite (CAC). Investigations on the mechanical strength of this composite to withstand and uphold the effect of temperature, water and ultra violet (UV) radiation were studied. This work started with preparation of CAC by hand lay-up technique and curing in 14 days at room temperature. The fabricated CACs were then exposed to three different environmental conditions which were heat, UV radiation and water exposures. The mechanical properties of CAC after environmental exposure were then studied. The results showed that tensile and impact strength increased after heat exposure at temperature of 40°C, 60°C and 85°C. CAC that was heated at 60°C in 20 days showed the maximum tensile of 11.23 MPa after 20 days and maximum impact strength of 20.39 kJ/m2 after 30 days heating at 60°C. It signified that heat strengthened the albumen matrix due to aggregation of protein network thus increased the interfacial hardening. However, prolong heating up to 40 days decreased the tensile and impact strength due to the increment in hardness and brittleness. The tensile strength decreased to 7.37 MPa at 85°C heating after 40 days. Heat showed a destructive effect on cellulose, degraded it by increasing the rate of chemical reaction. Results on the UV radiation exposure showed similar trend to the effect of heat but with lower value of tensile and impact strength due to the biodegradation. The maximum tensile and impact strength after UV radiation only gave the value of 9.62 MPa and 15.27 kJ/m2 respectively. Meanwhile water immersion results showed lowest decreasing in impact and tensile strength at 3.70 MPa and 4.44 kJ/m2 respectively due to the water absorption caused by hydrophilic property of albumen and cotton fiber. The morphology study was carried out using scanning electron microscope (SEM) to evaluate the microstructure of the fabricated CAC. SEM images revealed that decreasing in mechanical properties after heat, UV radiation and water immersion exposures were due to matrix loss and fiber/matrix debonding. Behavior of fracture surface was dominated by fiber pull-out signified weak interfacial adhesion. This research summarized that properties of CAC were affected by heat, UV radiation and water. Furthermore, degradability of CAC was highly accelerated in watery condition compared to heat and UV radiation exposures. |
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| Item Description: | Abstracts in English and Arabic. "A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Materials Engineering." --On t.p. |
| Physical Description: | xv, 96 leaves : ill. ; 30cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-87). |