Effects of Composition Parameters on Tensile and Thermal Properties of Abaca Fibre Reinforced High Impact Polystyrene Composites

The properties of fibre-reinforced composites are dependent not only on the strength of the reinforcement fibre but also on the distribution of fibre strength and the composition of the chemicals or additives addition within the composites. In this study, the tensile properties of abaca fibre reinforced high impact polystyrene (HIPS) composites, which had been produced with the parameters of fibre loading (30,40,50 wt.%), coupling agent maleic anhydride (MAH) (1,2,3 wt%) and impact modifier (4,5,6 wt.%) were measured. The optimum amount of MAH is 3% and the impact modifier is 6% and these give the best tensile properties. Meanwhile, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the thermal behaviour within the optimum conditions of the composites. In this research, glass transitions temperature (Tg) of neat HIPS occurred below the Tg of the optimum condition of composites as the temperature of an amorphous state. The endothermic peak of the composites was in the range of 430-435 degrees C, including neat HIPS. It was observed that enthalpy of the abaca fibre reinforced HIPS composites yielded below the neat HIPS of 748.79 J/g.