Comparison study on green coupling agents from different type of plants oil for agrowaste-based thermoplastic composites

In the present work, a different green coupling agent (GCA) was developed from virgin coconut oil (GCA-C). The GCA-C were a kind of glycidyl fatty acid ester which are reactive to natural filler. A comparison between GCA made from palm oil (GCA-P) and coconut oil (GCA-C) was studied. The results indicated the tensile strength and tensile modulus of composites increased with increasing the GCA content, and the 3 wt% of GCA content was the optimum content to achieve maximum improvement. Meanwhile, the increased GCA content slightly reduced the elongation at break of composites, but the elongation at break increased at 5 wt% of GCA content. The GCA-C had better performance in improving interfacial adhesion compared to GCA-P due to different fatty acid content. The micrographs of scanning electron microscope evidenced that the modified cocoa pod husk (CPH) with 3 wt% GCA had better filler-matrix adhesion with polypropylene matrix.