| Summary: | The influences of surface treatment on kenaf fibre for rubber toughened polyester filled carbon black (CB) and kenaf hybrid composite were investigated, in consideration for applications such as automotive parts and integrated circuits (IC) encapsulations. Kenaf fibres were divided into treated and untreated fibres, where 6% of NaOH solution was used as the treatment solution. Unsaturated polyester was mixed with 3% liquid natural rubber (LNR) as toughening agent and 4% of CB, before hybridised with both treated and untreated kenaf that were varied from 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% using mechanical stirrer and moulded by using hot compression technique. Flexural and impact testing were conducted and it was found that the hybridisation of CB and treated kenaf fibres composite showed improvement on flexural properties compared to non-hybrid CB filled composites although there are slight decrement on impact toughness. The optimum fibre loading for both treated and untreated kenaf were found at 25%. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.
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