Pretreatment Of Binder With Ionic Liquid For The Fabrication Of Eco-Friendly Composite

Synthetic composites have many applications and its rapid gloom started since 1960s. However, synthetic composites are produced from the non-renewable resource which is the petroleum. Besides, the manufacturing process of synthetic
composites has caused a lot of environmental pollution and the non-biodegradable of synthetic composites has lead to disposal problem. Thus, research starts to produce bio-degradable, renewable, and clean manufacturing process biocomposites. The result from the previous studies showed that generally, the biocomposite films possess good mechanical properties and thermal stability. In this study, a biocomposite boards will be prepared by utilizing the oil palm frond (OPF) and palm kernel shell (PKS) mixed with the thermo-plasticized starch (TPS) which is prepared by treating with different types of ionic liquids (1-ethyl-3-
methylimidazolium diethyl phosphate, 1-butyl-3 ethylimidazolium chloride, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethane
sulfonate). The effect of the processing parameters on the properties of the biocomposite boards are investigated. The parameters to be investigated include the temperature, pressure and the time of thermal compression to produce the
biocomposite boards. Besides, the influence of different types of ionic liquid on the TPS performance as an external binder will also be investigated. The properties to be
included in the study focused on the internal bonding and the thermal stability of the biocomposite boards. The internal bonding of the biocomposite boards were examined using the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) whereas the thermal stability was examined using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermo Gravimetry Analysis (TGA). The FT-IR result revealed that there the
presence of IL (except BmimTFMS) help to induce the inter-hydrogen bond formation. The TGA result showed that the biocomposite boards are thermally stable until very high temperature (>250oC). The successful preparation of OPF-PKS
biocomposite boards with TPS will become the insight of green chemistry which eliminates the use or the generation of non-environmental friendly substances.