Evaluation of the cure characteristics and physico-mechanical properties of treated Oil Palm Fiber based Natural Rubber Composites

Research at a glance

The global production of palm oil has grown with the emerging demand for vegetable oils in the past decades which produced 71 million tonnes of oil as at 2018 (Ritchie and Roser, 2021). This industry produces differ- ent types of waste materials such as empty fruit bunch, palm kernel shells, etc. during the process. This research was carried out to identify the application of the waste, mesocrap fiber part of the oil palm fruit (OPF) as a po- tential filler material in natural rubber composites by studying the cure characteristics and physico-mechan- ical properties. The fiber size of the OPF was reduced to micro size with a mechanical treatment followed by a chemical treatment and composites were prepared with different fiber sizes. The results revealed that the appli- cation of 2 phr loading of treated OPF enhances certain physico-mechanical properties and cure characteristics compared to a carbon black filled control compound.