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Mechanical Properties of Natural Fibre Reinforced PVC Composites: A Review

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Sains Malaysiana 38(4)(2009): 531–535

Mechanical Properties of Natural Fibre Reinforced PVC

Composites: A Review
(Sifat-sifat Mekanik Komposit PVC Diperkuat Gentian
Semulajadi: Satu Tinjauan)

R. WIRAWAN, E.S. ZAINUDIN* & S.M. SAPUAN

ABSTRACT
Poly (vinyl chloride), which is commonly abbreviated as PVC, is widely used due to it being inexpensive, durable, and
flexible. As a hard thermoplastic, PVC is used in the applications such as in building materials pipe and plumbing. The
factors that should be considered in using PVC is safety and environmental issues. Mixing PVC with natural fibres is an
interesting alternative. The main challenge in the research on natural fibre/polymer composites is the poor compatibility
between the fibres and the matrix because this will affect their bonding strength. During the mixing with PVC, some
natural fibres may acts as reinforcing materials while other natural fibres only act as filler, which contribute less to
mechanical strength improvement. However, generally natural fibres also give positive outcome to the stiffness of the
composites while decreasing the density.

Keywords: Composites; natural fibre; poly (vinyl chloride)

ABSTRAK
Poly (vinyl chloride) yang dikenali secara amnya sebagai PVC, telah digunakan dengan meluasnya kerana kosnya yang
tidak tinggi, berdaya tahan dan fleksibel. Sebagai termoplastik keras, PVC digunakan dalam aplikasi seperti dalam
bahan-bahan binaan dan pempaipan. Perkara yang perlu diberi perhatian dalam menggunakan PVC ialah mengenai isu
keselamatan dan alam sekitar. Mencampurkan PVC dengan gentian semula jadi adalah alternatif yang menarik. Cabaran
utama penyelidikan berkaitan komposit gentian semulajadi/ polimer ialah kelemahan keserasian antara gentian dan damar
kerana ia mempengaruhi kekuatan ikatan di antara gentian dan damar. Semasa pencampuran dengan PVC, sebahagian
gentian semula jadi akan bertindak sebagai bahan penguat manakala yang lainnya hanya bertindak sebagai pengisi yang
kurang menyumbang kepada memperbaiki kekuatan mekanikal. Walau bagaimanapun, secara amnya gentian-gentian
semulajadi ada juga memberi kesan positif kepada kekakuan komposit manakala ketumpatan berkurang.

Kata kunci: Gentian semulajadi; komposit; poli (vinil klorida)

INTRODUCTION
Polymers have substituted many of conventional
materials, especially metals, in various applications due to
the advantages of polymers over conventional materials.
They are used in many applications because they are easy
to process, high productivity low cost and versatility.
However, for some specific uses, some mechanical
properties, such as strength and toughness of polymer
materials are inadequate. Various approaches have been
developed to improve such properties. In most of these
applications, the properties of polymers are modified
using fillers and fibres to suit the high strength/high
modulus requirements. Fibre-reinforced polymers have
better specific properties compared to the conventional
materials and find applications in diverse field, ranging
from appliances to spacecraft (Saheb & Jog 1999).
There are many uses of PVC. As a hard thermoplastic,
PVC is used as building materials, pipe, plumbing and
many other applications. It also can be made softer
and more flexible by the addition of plasticizer. Beside
the cost of the raw materials, there are several reasons
why PVC has the broadest range of application and its
use has grown more rapidly than of other plastics. It is
because PVC is easy to fabricate and it can last for long
time. PVC has outstanding chemical resistance to wide
range of corrosive fluids and offer more strength and
rigidity than most of the other thermoplastics. It is also
uniquely responsive to functional additives which permit
the generation of rigid and flexible products, useful in
designed engineering application (Nass 1985; Willoughby
2002)
On the other hand, there are several safety and
environmental issues on PVC. Vinyl-chloride (VC) can cause
serious health problem. The anaesthetic property of VC was
recognized in early 1930s and has been investigated by
several workers. At concentration much above 8 to 12%,
it may kill animals rapidly. If an excess of VC is inhaled,
the liver capacity is overwhelmed and allowing tumour
532
formation. It is also reported as carcinogen (Nass 1985).
PVC is also currently suspected as a contaminant material.
When it is processed, or decomposed, it produces some
substances that can damage the atmosphere, for example
hydrogen chloride and dioxins. The issues have provoked
environmental groups to criticize its mass utilization (Ayora
et al. 1997).
Mixing PVC with natural fibres, as natural fibres/
PVC composites is an interesting alternative due to the
“ecological friendliness” of natural fibre. This could reduce
its disadvantages while conserving its advantages (Ayora
et al. 1997). Moreover, during the last decade natural fibres
have attracted the attention of scientists and technologists
because of the advantages that these fibres provide over
conventional reinforcement materials, glass-fibres. When
they are subjected to a combustion process or landfill at
the end of their life cycle, the released amount of CO2 of
the fibres is neutral with respect to the assimilated amount
during their growth. The abrasive nature of natural fibres is
much lower compared to that of glass-fibres, which leads
to advantages with regard to technical, material recycling
or process of composite materials in general. The density
of natural fibres is much lower compared to glass-fibres.
It means there is potential advantage of weight saving
(Bledski & Gassan 1999).
In this review, the potential of PVC as natural fibre
composite matrix and some efforts to improve the
mechanical properties of natural fibres/PVC composites
will be discussed.
Mechanical and Physical Properties of Poly
(vinyl chloride)
PVC is a member of vinyl polymers. It has the vinyl group
(CH2=CH-). The other example of group members are
polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl
acetate, polymethyl methacrylate and polyvinylidene
chloride. Through common usage, the word vinyl generally
refers to PVC and its copolymers. Vinyl chloride (VC)
monomer, CH2=CHCl, is a colourless gas possessing a
faintly sweet odour which can cause anaesthesia at high
concentrations (Sarvetnick 1977).
Although there is speculation that acetylene derived
from coal may become the major hydrocarbon used, the
source of hydrocarbon for VC has been ethylene in recent
times. The production of VC also needs chlorine, produced
mainly from common salt (NaCl). On a weight basis,
chlorine accounts for 56.8% of the total weight. PVC is
hence less affected by the cost of petroleum and natural
gas then other polymer. Since the price of petroleum and
natural gas are uncertain, PVC will still be less expensive
compared to other polymers (Nass 1985).
Beside the cost of the raw materials, there are several
reasons why PVC has the broadest range of application and
its use has grown more rapidly than of other plastics. It
is because PVC is easy to fabricate and it can last longer.
PVC has outstanding chemical resistance to wide range of
corrosive fluids and offer more strength and rigidity than
most of the other thermoplastics. Tensile stress of PVC is 40-
60 MPa, its modulus of elasticity is 2-7 GPa with density
of 1380-1410 kg/m3. PVC is also uniquely responsive to
functional additives which permits the generation of rigid
and flexible products, useful in designed engineering
application (Willoughby 2002).
Many authors have reported the properties of PVC-
natural fibre composites. So far, at least there are nine
variants of natural fibres that have been used for filler/
reinforcing materials. They are wood (Mengeloglu et al.
2000; Zhao et al. 2006; Jiang et al. 2004), bamboo, pine
(Ge et al. 2004), rice straw (Kamel 2004), sisal (Djidjelli
et al. 2007), oil palm (Abu Bakar et al. 2006), sugarcane
bagasse (Zheng, et al. 2007), banana (Zainudin et al. 2007),
and coconut (Leblanc et al. 2007).
Mechanical and Physical Properties
of Natural Fibres
Natural fibres may be classified in two broad categories:
Non-wood fibres and wood fibres. Non-wood fibres can
divided into (Mohanty et al. 2005):
1. Straw, examples: corn, wheat, and rice straw;
2. Bast, examples: kenaf (Hibiscus cannabicus), flax
(Linum usitatissimum), jute (Corchorus), ramie
(Boehmeira nivea), and hemp (Cannabis sativa);
3. seed/fruit, examples: sisal (Agave sisalana), pineapple
(Ananas comosus) leaf, and henequen (Agave
fourcroydes) fibre;
4. grass fibres, example: bamboo fibre, switch grass
(Panicum virgatum), and elephant grass (Erianthus
elephantinus);
Natural fibres in the form of wood flour have also
been often used for preparation of natural fibre composites.
The characteristic values of natural fibres vary from one
fibre to another. Some of the characteristic values are the
cellulose content in the fibre, the degree of polymerization
of the cellulose and the microfibrils angle fibres. Higher
cellulose content, higher degree of polymerization and
a lower microfibrillar angle will affect higher tensile
strength and modulus. The variations in the characteristic
value exhibit the variations in mechanical properties both
along the length of an individual fibre and between fibres
(Jayaraman 2003).
Natural fibres also have non-uniformity and variation
of dimensions, even between individual plants in the same
cultivation. To generate fibres suitable for specific end
products, the various types of raw material are separated.
Bast or stem fibres, for example, are mainly used in the
textile or rope industries because of the length of the fibres.
Bast straw is not separated into single fibres but into fibre
bundles, which may contain thousands of single fibres. In
contrast, wood is usually separated into single fibres or very
small fibre bundles suiting the particular needs of the pulp,
paper or board industries. Thus, there are a great number
of challenges for selecting fibres in different dimensions
and properties (Olesen & Plackett 1999).
 533

Generally, the density of natural fibres is much less

than that of E-glass fibre. The specific strength and specific
modulus of natural fibres are comparable or even superior
to E-glass fibres. Many natural fibres have higher specific
modulus compare to E-glass fibres. Hence, there is an
opportunity for using the natural fibres to replace the
E-glass fibre (Drzal et al. 2004)
The challenge now is how to make the natural
fibres compatible enough with the PVC. When they are
used as reinforcements of synthetic polymers, there is a
major drawback of the application. Due to the presence
of hydroxyl and other polar groups on the surface and
throughout natural fibre, moisture absorption can be
high. It leads to poor wet-ability by the polymers and
weak interfacial bonding between fibres and hydrophobic
polymers, as the matrix (Brouwer 2000). In order to
develop composites with better mechanical properties, it Figure 1. Hypothetical chemical structure of
is necessary to solve the problems by suitable treatments to cellulose-PMPPIC-PVC
enhance the compatibility between fibres and the matrices
(Brouwer 2000; Drzal et al. 2004).
if unidirectional continuous fibres are used and there is
a good compatibility between fibres and matrix.
Compatibility and Reinforcement Effect of The stress transfer in a composite depends largely on
Natural Fibre in Polymer Matrix
fibre orientation, stress concentration at the fibre ends, fibre
The development of sugarcane bagasse reinforced length, interfacial shear strength and compatibility between
PVC composite will face a major challenge in utilizing fibre and matrix. Kalaprasad et al. (1997) reported that two
natural fibre as reinforcing material in synthetic polymer models showed very good correlation with experimental
composite, which is compatibility issue. Due to the result of natural fibre reinforced polymer composites. They
presence of hydroxyl and other polar groups on the surface are Hirsch model and modified Bowyer and Bader model.
and throughout natural fibre, moisture absorption can According to the Hirsch model, modulus of elasticity
be high. It leads to poor wet-ability of the polymers and and tensile strength are calculated using the following
weak interfacial bonding between fibres and hydrophobic equations (Kalaprasad et al. 1997)
polymers as the matrix (Drzal et al. 2004).
Many efforts have been carried out to solve this (1)
problem. Generally, surface treatment should be carried
out in order to enhance the compatibility. Alkali, acrylic
acid, maleic anhydride, and other acids and anhydrides (2)
treatment are the example of the surface treatments
(Kokta et al. 1990a; Vilay et al. 2008). Another surface
treatment is a coupling agent addition. Poly [methylene where x is a parameter which determines the stress transfer
poly (phenyl isocyanate)] (PMPPIC) has been reported as between fibre and matrix.
one of suitable coupling agents for natural fibre reinforced The following equations are used for calculating
PVC composites. The –N=C=O group of isocyanate may modulus and tensile strength in modified Bowyer and
undergo a chemical reaction with –OH group of cellulose Bader Model (Kalaprasad et al. 1997):
or it counterpart lignin to develop strong interface
between PMPPIC and natural fibres. On the other hand, E c = k 1k 2E fV f + E mV m (3)
the non-polar benzene ring of PMPPIC can interact with
PVC (Maldas, et al. 1989; Joseph, et al. 2002). Figure 1 σc = k1k2σfVf + σmVm, (4)
shows hypothetical chemical structure of cellulose fibre-
PMPPIC-PVC in the interfacial area. where k1 is fibre orientation factor and k2 is fibre length
Due to the compatibility issue, rule of mixtures fail factor, which is depending on critical fibre length.
to show reasonable agreement with most experimental However, there is a possibility that the fibre is only
tensile properties of natural fibre composites. The rule acting as filler, not as reinforcing phase as reported by
of mixture is usually used to describe the strength of Vázquez et al. (1999). The strength of untreated bagasse
unidirectional continuous fibre reinforced composites. fibre-polypropylene composite decreased when fibre
It is assumed that uniform strain condition exist in both content increased. The strength of the composites was
matrix and fibres (Kalaprasad et al. 1997). In other words, even lower than the matrix alone. In this case, all of
the rule of mixture will agree the experiment result only formula (1) to (4) cannot be used. The application of
534

Nicolais-Narkis equation is preferred: recent development in general, structure and properties of

(5)
where K is a parameter that depends on fibre/matrix
adhesion.
Reinforcement Effect of Natural Fibre
in PVC Matrix
Previous research reports represented in Table 1 show that
besides PMPPIC treated wood-PVC and benzoic acid treated
sugarcane bagasse-PVC composites, the natural fibres
act only as filler in PVC composites. Fibre content gives
negative effect to the tensile strength of the composite.
The PMPPIC treatment seems suitable for wood- PVC
composite as it can change the fibre content reinforcement
effect from negative to positive. It means, with PMPPIC
treatment, the strength of composite is increasing with
the increasing of the fibre content, as a result of chemical
reaction between the –N=C=O group of isocyanate with
–OH group of cellulose or it counterpart lignin:
-NCO + HO-→ΝΗ−COO-.
Hence, the strong interface between fibres and PVC
were developed as described in Figure 1. It can also be
seen that generally the fibre content gives positive effect
to the stiffness (E) of natural fibre PVC composites.
CONCLUSION
The use of natural fibre as reinforcing agent in PVC based
composites were reviewed from viewpoints of status and
natural fibre, fibre surface modifications, and physical and
mechanical properties of natural fibre based PVC composites.
Wood fibres have mostly been used as reinforcements in PVC
based composites. Due to the low density and high specific
properties of these natural fibres, composites based on these
fibres may have very good implications in the automotive
and furniture industry. The use of natural fibres as a source
of raw material in PVC plastic industry not only provides
a renewable resource, but could also generate a non-food
source of economic development for farming and rural
areas. However, to obtain a good interfacial bond between
filler and matrix, it is necessary by the addition of suitable
modifier agent. Poly [methylene poly (phenyl isocyanate)]
(PMPPIC) is one of suitable coupling agents can be utilized
for natural fibre reinforced PVC composites.
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Table 1. Effect of fibre content to mechanical properties of natural fibre PVC composites

Fibre Content
Fibre Treatment Reinforcement Effect* Source
σ E

Wood Nontreated - + Kokta et al. (1990a); Djidjelli et al.

(2002); Ge et al. (2004)
Wood PMPPIC + + Maldas et al. (1989); Kokta et al. (1990b);
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*
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R. Wirawan, E.S. Zainudin* & S.M. Sapuan
Jabatan Mekanikal dan Kejuruteraan Pembuatan
Universiti Putra Malaysia
UPM 43400 Serdang, Selangor D.E.
Malaysia
*Corresponding author; email: edisyam@eng.upm.edu.my
Received: 10 July 2008
Accepted: 3 November 2008