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Research Article
The Influence of Fiber Length and Concentration on the Physical
Properties of Wheat Husk Fibers Rubber Composites
Maged S. Sobhy1, 2 and M. T. Tammam2, 3
1 Physics
Department, Faculty of Science, AL-Baha University, 65431, P.O. 1034, AL-Baha, Saudi Arabia
Physics Laboratory, Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt
3 Physics Department, Faculty of Arts and Science, Egdabia Branch, University of Gar-Younis, Benghazi, Libya
2 Polymer
1. Introduction
Natural fibers are subdivided based on their origins, coming
from plants, animals, or minerals. Natural Plant-fibers are
grouped into four types: seed hairs (cotton, kapok), bastfibers (flax, hemp, jute, ramie), leaf-fibers (sisal, henequen,
coir, abaca), and wood flour (wheat husk, rice husk) [15]. It
is well known that wheat husk fibers were employed in Egypt
[1] for a very long time ago for buildings as construction
materials mixed with clay. Generally, the dierent types of
natural fibers are used to reinforce plastics (thermosets as
well as thermoplastics) and reach the mechanical properties
of glass-fiber composites, and they are already applied, for
example, in automobile and furniture industries due to their
relative high strength and stiness and low density [5].
Composites can be tailored to have the desired properties
by incorporating particulate fillers into a polymer matrix to
suit dierent applications [6]. For economic and environmental reasons [7, 8], there is an increasing use of polymer
composites filled with lignocellulosic materials such as wood
flour, rice husk, wheat husk, jute, and sisal [912].
The main disadvantage encountered during the incorporation of natural lignocellulosic materials into polymers
is the lack of good interfacial adhesion between the two
Composition
Lignin
Cellulose
Hemicellulose
Ash content
Others
%
16.4
30.5
28.9
11.26.6
2.4
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials. Wheat husks were obtained from agricultural
areas (Beni-Suef, Upper Egypt). Before use, the wheat
husks were thoroughly washed several times with tap water
followed by three times with deionized water to remove
any adhering undesired soil, clay, and dust and finally dried
at 102 2 C overnight. The dried husks were grounded
mechanically in rotary cutting mill (10,000 rpm) to the range
23.5 mm and then sieved automatically into classification
according to their lengths. The investigated fiber lengths were
short (<125 m); SW, medium (125250 m); MW, high
(250500 m); and HW. The chemical composition of the
used wheat husk fibers is represented in Table 1.
Ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM) was E/P
ratio, 57/43 with specific gravity 0.870.89 gm/cm3 that
supplied from Uniroyal Chemical Co., Inc, Naugatuck, USA.
Paran wax was used with molecular weight 340430 and
wide melting point 3575 C, while other standard rubber
compounding ingredients such as stearic acid, zinc oxide,
and sulfur, that are supplied by Transport and Engineering
Company, TRANCO, Alexandria, Egypt, were of commercial
grades and used without further purification. The organic
solvent used for swelling measurements was chloroform; it
has a density of 1.49 gm/cm3 .
2.2. Sample Preparation. The formulations of the mixes are
given in Table 2. The composite materials were prepared
in a two-roll laboratory mill (150 mm 300 mm) that is
maintained at nearly 50 C, as described by the American
Society for Testing and Materials ASTM D318489. The
nip gap, mill/roll speed ratio, and number of passes were
kept the same for all mixes. The samples were milled for
sucient time to disperse the fibers in the matrix at a mill
125250
<125
HW30
30
250
500
d phenyl--naphthylamine.
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
SW
MW
WHF lengths
HW
Longitudinal
Transverse
(a)
900
800
Elongation at break (%)
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
SW
MW
WHF lengths
HW
Longitudinal
Transverse
(b)
Mix
MW0
MW15
MW30
MW40
MW50
HW30
MW30
SW30
ML (dNm)
8.4
9.0
10.9
10
12.9
11.2
10.9
10.2
MH MI (dNm)
68.6
69.9
68.0
67.0
64.9
74.7
68.0
67.6
TC90 (min)
19.70
20.75
20.25
18.83
20.3
19.60
20.25
20.00
CRI (min1 )
6.08
5.43
5.56
5.89
5.54
5.73
5.56
5.59
TSI (min)
3.25
2.33
2.73
1.85
2.26
2.15
2.73
2.13
Cure time = tC90 , Scorch time = tS2 , Cure Rate Index = CRI = 100/(TC90 TS2 ).
2
2
1.5
1
1.5
1.5
0.5
0
0.5
0
15
30
40
WHF concentration (phr)
0.5
50
0
Longitudinal
Transverse
10
2.5
Qt (mol %)
2.5
2.5
0
50
20
30
40
WHF concentration (phr)
Degree of swelling
Crosslink density
(a)
900
Figure 3: Variation of the degree of swelling and crosslinking density as a function of WHF concentrations filled EPDM vulcanizates.
800
700
600
500
400
300
ln(1 Vr ) + Vr + Vr 2 + Vc V1 vr 1/3
200
100
0
15
30
40
50
Longitudinal
Transverse
(b)
Vr
V0 = 0,
2
(1)
(2)
VI
0.6666
0.6060
0.5555
0.5263
0.5000
VF
0.41897
0.42364
0.44995
0.46628
0.49908
VT
0.37154
0.30092
0.19000
0.11404
0.00182
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
104
5
15
100
200
300
400
Temperature ( C)
500
DTGA (gm/min)
Mix
MW0
MW15
MW30
MW40
MW50
TGA (%)
25
600
(a)
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
5
10
100
200
300
400
Temperature ( C)
500
DTGA (gm/min)
TGA (%)
103
15
600
(b)
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0
5
10
15
100
200
300
400
Temperature ( C)
500
20
DTGA (gm/min)
103
TGA (%)
600
(c)
Weight Loss, %
5
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
MW0 ( C)
293.0
366.6
459.6
472.5
479.8
486.0
492.1
499.0
MW15 ( C)
273.3
319.3
447.3
466.9
475.9
482.9
488.6
496.8
MW30 ( C)
278.5
319.8
431.9
468.5
479.5
486.9
493.9
502.7
MW40 ( C)
267.0
302.9
385.2
461.5
473.7
481.5
488.9
499.0
MW50 ( C)
267.1
302.8
366.5
462.3
475.9
484.4
492.0
502.5
Table 6: Analysis of the thermograms of WHF, EPDM, and WHF-EPDM vulcanizates at the heating rate of 10 C/min.
Tm1 , C
323.3
316.54
341
320.08
325.3
Sample
WHFs
MW0
MW15
MW30
MW40
MW50
Tm2 , C
486.02
480.3
489.6
479.71
483.2
7%
13%
6%
11%
0
Husk
DTGA (gm/min)
0.005
0 phr
0.01
15 phr
0.015
30 phr
0.02
0.025
40 phr
0.03
50 phr
0.035
0.04
100
200
300
400
Temperature ( C)
500
600
65%
56%
72%
29%
53%
References
the WHF due to the formation of stable products during
vulcanization. It may contribute to the naturally improved
adhesion between WHF and EPDM especially for MW30 .
4. Conclusions
The performance of wheat husk fibers WHF as reinforcing filler with dierent lengths and loading for ethylenepropylene-diene terpolymer (EPDM) is examined. From the
foregoing discussions, one may conclude that the optimum
length MW30 is confirmed by the tensile tests, where these
fibers are tend to agglomerate due to the higher degree of
lignin on its surface, which in turn increases the hydrogen
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