A master’s student “Asala Muhammad Arabi” defended her thesis “Industrial Applications for Substituted Natural Polymers” on Tuesday, January, 7th, at the conference room C/ Materials Engineering Department/University of Technology. The Committee included:
1.Assistant Prof. Ali Amer Abdul- Hadi/ Alkufa University/ Chemical Engineering Department as a chair.
- Assistant Prof. Wafaa Mahdi Slih/ University of Technology/ Materials Engineering Department as a committee member.
- Dr. Muhammad Rmayed Gargan/ University of Technology/ Materials Engineering Department as a committee member.
- Assistant Prof. Kadhim Mutar Shabeeb/ University of Technology/ Materials Engineering Department as an adviser.
- Dr. Ayad Kadhim Hasan/ University of Technology/ Materials Engineering Department as an adviser.
The dissertation was scientifically evaluated by Assist. Prof. Dr. Saad Hanash Amar / Alnahrain University / College of Engineering / Department of Chemistry Engineering, and linguistically by Lec. Yakdhan reda Mahdi / University of Technology / English Language Center.
The discussion of the dissertation was conducted in a scientific atmosphere and a master's degree with grade of pass was awarded to the student after the completion of all the corrections that have been decided by the examiners.
Abstract
The main goal of this study is to prepare a composites material using residual plant and environmentally friendly materials (corn cob), where the corn cob is cut and grinded into powder, then extracted in a Soxhlet apparatus using benzene/ethanol mixture (1:1 v/v %) as an appropriate solvent in order to remove wood extractives. Then using the Kürchner-Hoffer method to isolate cellulose by the Delignification process or Bleaching process. Finally, the cellulose is acetylated to get cellulose acetate.
In this work, Untreated corn cob powder, Solvent treated corn cob, Nitric acid treated corn cob powder, and Acetylated corn cob powder were mixed with unsaturated polyester resin. The incompatibility between untreated natural fiber and unsaturated polyester resin due to the hydrophilic nature of natural fiber while polyester resin has hydrophobic nature, therefore, it is important to treated the natural fiber to enhance interaction between matrix and reinforcement.
The effects of the untreated natural fiber and treated natural fiber with different concentrations (0, 1, 2, and 3 wt.%) were studied. the effect of the different concentrations and treatment processes were evaluated by the inspection of mechanical properties (e.g., tensile, impact, bending, hardness), physical properties (e.g., thermal conductivity, water absorption, density), and Microstructure and spectroscopy properties (e.g., Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)). The results for the Mechanical properties tests showed that there is an enhancement in mechanical properties (Tensile, Impact, Hardness, and Bending) due to the treatments (Solvent treatment, Nitric acid treatment, and Acetylation) by increasing the treated corn cob powder mass fraction (1, 2, and 3wt. %) respectively.
Physical properties tests results (Density, Water absorption, and Thermal conductivity) showed that there is a decreasing in density during each treatment (Solvent treatment, Nitric acid treatment, and Acetylation) by increasing the treated corn cob powder mass fraction (1, 2, and 3wt. %) respectively, while there is an increasing in thermal conductivity and water absorption for each treatment and by increasing in mass fraction.
FTIR analysis, SEM and DSC showed that as increasing the chemical treatment to natural fiber, the compatibility between matrix and reinforcement increased.