Effect of microwave treatment on tensile properties of sugar palm fibre reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane composites

The effect of microwave treatment on the tensile properties of treated sugar palm fibre with 6% NaOH reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane composites was investigated. Firstly, the sugar palm fibres were treated by 6% alkali solution. Then, microwave treatment was used to treat the alkali treated sugar palm fibres. Three types of temperatures (i.e. 70, 80 and 90 degrees C) were applied in microwave treatment. The extruder and hot press machines were used to mixing the sugar palm fibres and polyurethane resin, and fabricate the composites. Tensile properties (i.e. tensile strength, tensile modulus and elongation at break) were studied by following the ASTM D-638 standard. The highest tensile strength was recorded 18.42 MPa with microwave temperature at 70 degrees C and 6% alkali pre-treatment. Therefore, the temperature 70 degrees C of microwave treatment may consider the best degree cent grate. (c) 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).