Comparison of Acetylation and Alkali Treatments on the Physical and Morphological Properties of Raffia Palm Fibre Reinforced Composite

This work studied the comparison of the effects of acetylation and alkali treatments on the physical and morphological properties of raffia palm fibre polyester composites. The clean raffia palm fibres obtained from raffia palm tree were pre-treated using acetylation and alkali (mercerization) methods. The treated fibres were dried, ground and incorporate into polyester resin at various fibre loads of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. The treated fibre composite samples were subjected to tensile tests according to ASTM D638 using Instron model 3369. The microhardness test was done using microhardness tester (LECO/M700AT). The scanning electron micrographs of the samples were taken using Scanning electron microscope (SEM) machine, model EVO/MA 10. The results of the analyses showed that the composites of the acetylated fibre improved the properties of the composites for ultimate tensile strength, better than the composites of alkali(mercerized) treated fibre, while the latter gave better modulus of elasticity and extension at break. Both the treatment methods showed increase in microhardness for the composites as fibre loads increases, but the acetylated fibre composites gave better results at each of the fibre loads of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%, studied. The SEM of the acetylated fibre composites, especially the 5% fibre load, showed better fibre-matrix interfacial bonding than the alkali treated fibre composites.