Influence of Filler Size Variation on the Hardness, Thermal, and Moisture Absorption Properties of Wood Apple/Pine Cone Reinforced Areca Fiber Hybrid Composites

Abstract

The ever-growing agricultural biomass has created a lot of burden on the already over-burdened landfills, and has also led to increase in methane emissions from its burning. Therefore, the utilisation of this abundant biomass has become essential nowadays for the sustainable development of environment friendly materials. This work investigates the physicochemical and mechanical properties of lignocellulosic biomass reinforced polymer composite. In particular, a comparison was made between two sets of composites based on wood apple and pine cone fillers in terms of their size variation and its effect on their thermal, water absorption, and hardness properties. The results indicate that the filler size variation had a notable impact on the composite. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that specific filler sizes improved thermal stability by limiting the polymeric chain mobility. In contrast, water absorption was found to increase with larger filler sizes due to particle agglomeration and void formation. The pine cone composites notably displayed higher moisture absorption than the wood apple composites due to the presence of higher hemicellulose content in pine cones. Contrarily, hardness values decreased as the filler size increased, attributed to agglomeration of fillers at large size. However, pine cone composites demonstrated superior hardness overall attributed to the higher amount of lignin present in pine cones. These findings highlight the necessity of optimizing filler size and selecting appropriate waste derivatives to balance thermal stability, moisture resistance, and mechanical strength in composites.

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