Preparation and characterization of biopolyol from liquefied oil palm fruit waste: part 2

Oil palm fruit waste (OPFW) was conducted using polyhydric alcohol (PA) as liquefaction solvent with H2SO4 in three different OPFW/PA ratio (1/2, 1/3 and 1/4). During the liquefaction, cellulose, semi-cellulose and lignin are decomposed, which results in changes of acid value and hydroxyl value. The liquefied OPFW were characterized by Fourier Transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The hydroxyl and acid values of the liquefied oil palm fruit waste (OPFW) varied with the liquefied conditions. It was observed that with an increase in the liquefaction solvent (PA) amount in the mixture resulted in a high acid value and hydroxyl value for the OPFW. FT-IR spectroscopy analysis showed that the resulting biopolyol was suitable monomer for polyurethane (PU) synthesis for the production of PU foams

Deterioration rate of renewable polyurethanes composites prior to ultra violet irradiation exposure

Polyurethanes (PU's) made from renewable and sustainable materials are one of the most important groups of polymers because of their versatility with wide range of grades, densities and stiffness. In this project, polymers based on renewable materials such as rapeseed (RS) and sunflower oil (SF) were synthesized and cross-linked to form polyurethanes. The effect of prolonged exposure up to 1000 h upon UVB light, in general promotes photodegradation for both RS and SF-based polyurethanes, both neat and also composites loaded with TiO2. The addition of 10% Degussa P25 TiO2 pigment, gives the greater degradation while PUs loaded with 5% Kronos 2220 show the slowest rates of degradation due to the effect of the coating of this pigment. The photostabiliser Tinuvin 770 offers high protection from UVB, thus lead the combination of Tinuvin 770 with Degussa P25 promotes the highest protection from UVB exposure. Moreover, addition of Tinuvin 770 at the stage of preparation of the PUs also greatly reduced the undesirable yellow colouration prevalent during PU synthesis

Liquefaction of oil palm fruit waste and its application for the development of polyurethane foams

This research utilizes solvolysis liquefaction of oil palm fruit waste (PW) biomass for production of polyurethane (PU) foam. Three part of PW: oil palm mesocarp fibre (PM), oil palm shell (PS) and oil palm kernel (PK) was treated using liquefaction solvent with sulfuric acid. Effects of different liquefaction condition such as effect of raw material/liquefaction solvent ratio, reaction time, liquefaction temperature, catalyst amount and liquefaction solvent on liquefaction yield have been determined. Analytical methods used were SEM and DSC analysis. Result showed that more than 70% of the PW were converted into biopolyols within optimum reaction condition of 120 minutes at 150°C with raw material/liquefaction solvent ratio of 1/3 using PEG400. In liquefaction process, hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin are degraded which results in changes of acid and hydroxyl value. Biopolyols of PM/PEG400 ratios was yielded highest biopolyol which is used to continue the experiment. Foaming kinetic indicate a slight increase from initial mix time to gelling time. Moisture content and water absorption are strongly affected the mechanical properties of PU foam. There is no Tg observed in PMF in DSC analysis. Oil palm fruit waste showed great potential for PU foams fabrication

Segmented phase of ultraviolet (UV) curable thermoset polyurethanes-graphite (TPU-G) composites

Segmented thermoset polymeric materials properties mainly classified through its carbonyl hydrogen bonding. The addition of graphite particle loading in polymeric materials tailored the functional characteristic of the composites. Therefore, the carbonyl hydrogen bonding in the hard segments of the synthesized segmented ultraviolet (UV) curable thermoset polyurethanes-graphite (TPU-G) composites was identified. This composites based green polymer incorporated with varying graphite particles loading were prepared through slip casting method which cure upon UV light. These result in an enhancement of the carbonyl hydrogen bonding which tribute to degree of phase separation (DPS %) in the TPU-G composites ranged from 10-20%, as compared to that in the pure TPU. In addition, the spectroscopy detects the formation of carbonyl hydrogen groups within the TPU-G composites although they are prone to chain scission and undergo photo oxidation subjected to ultraviolet (UV) curing. Upon UV curing, higher graphite weight loading (TPU-G20, TPU-G25 and TPU-G30 composites), shows higher and stable DPS% value, attribute to soft segment- soft segment and hard segment- hard segment establishment. Therefore, the graphite particles dominantly absorb the incident radiation instead of thermoset polyurethane without changing its based

Thermal Degradation and Damping Characteristic of UV Irradiated Biopolymer

Biopolymer made from renewable material is one of the most important groups of polymer because of its versatility in application. In this study, biopolymers based on waste vegetable oil were synthesized and cross-link with commercial polymethane polyphenyl isocyanate (known as BF). TheBF was compressed by using hot compression moulding technique at 90∘C based on the evaporation of volatile matter, known as compress biopolymer (CB). Treatment with titanium dioxide (TiO2) was found to affect the physical property of compressed biopolymer composite (CBC).Thecharacterization of thermal degradation, activation energy, morphology structure, density, vibration, and damping of CB were determined after UV irradiation exposure. This is to evaluate the photo- and thermal stability of the treated CB or CBC. The vibration and damping characteristic of CBC samples is significantly increased with the increasing of UV irradiation time, lowest thickness, and percentages of TiO2 loading at the frequency range of 15–25Hz due to the potential of the sample to dissipate energy during the oscillation harmonic system.The damping property of CBC was improved markedly upon prolonged exposure to UV irradiation

DYE SENSITIZED SOLAR CELL (DSSC) PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS BASED ON SERIES CIRCUIT

Abstract. Solar power system is one of the renewable sources that will be used to produce electricity because of its characteristics such as consumed free source of sun light, less maintenance needed for the system and free of charge for usage electricity. One of the main disadvantages is the initial cost of the equipment used to harness the suns energy especially the cost of solar panel. In Malaysia, the cost of solar panel are relatively high because the solar panel are imported from overseas and the materials used in existing solar panel is very expensive. Therefore the proposed solar cells that will be used is natural dye sensitized with photovoltaic material. The scope of this research is to full fill the demand of low cost and to abundance, renewable material that could be used for energy conversion solar cell. The circuit connections of solar cells are in series and the performance of the dye sensitized cells would be based on the intensity of the sunlight illumination. The measurement of solar cell are conducted using 10 dye sensitizied cells connected in series circuit arrangement and the performance for this design are evaluated based on the generated potential (V) upon sunlight illumination at noon and evening for certain period of time. The result obtained from this research shows that the performance of series circuit connection of the dye sensitized solar cell is comparable with the silicon solar cell

Design of experiment for in-situ synthesis of waste vegetable oils and synthetic based polyurethane (PU) foam composites

This study focused on fabrication of polyurethane (PU) foams and its composites based on hydroxylated bioepoxy (B) and petroleum based synthetic epoxy (E), crosslinker and wood fillers. The fabrication of foams: B and E with different wood filler size such as flake (L) and powder (P) on different composition ratios of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. The fabrication techniques used in this research are open moulding technique. The physical properties such as morphological pore structure and its homogeneity of wood filler distribution in foam polymer composites were measured. The effect of different size of wood filler loading in PU foam composites were analyzed and discussed in detail such as gelling time, main pore size, interconnected pore and struts thickness. The operatory conditions of in-situ PU foams synthesis were optimized using a design of experiment (DOE). The correlations between factors (X1, X2, X3) and the responses (Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4) for B, E as well as BL, BF, EL or EF foams were further analyzed using Minitab software

Vibration Transmissibility Study of High Density Solid Waste Biopolymer Foam

Waste cooking oils are problematic to dispose of especially in the developed countries. In this paper, waste cooking oil is used as raw material to produce foam. The purpose of this study is to develop a high density solid biopolymer foam (HDB) by using a hot compression molding technique based on flexible and rigid cross-linking agents. Physical properties such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and vibration characteristics have been studied using a vibration transmissibility test according to the ASTM D3580-95 standard. Different thicknesses were examined during the fabrication of HDB to measure the vibration property. By using the linear vibration theory with a single degree of freedom, the resonance frequency of vibration transmissibility and damping ratios of HDB foam at variation excitation are acquired. The results show that HDB flexible foam gives a higher damping ratio to absorb vibration. The capability of the HDB flexible foam to absorb vibration is greater than rigid HDB. It was observed that no improvement was achieved by increasing the thickness of HDB to vibration transmissibility. Reducing the thickness of the HDB flexible foam gives an increment of a damping ratio up to 36%

Mechanical Properties of UV Irradiated Bio Polymer Thin Films Doped With Titanium Dioxide

This study report on the effect of UV-light on the mechanical properties of bio polymer thin films (BPF) doped with 10% Titanium Dioxide(TiO2). Bio monomer was mixed with 4, 4'-methylenebis (phenylisocyanate) (MDI) to produce neat BPF and TiO2 was added to form BFP doped with 10% TiO2. The film samples were irridiated in UV accelerated Weathermeter at 50 degree C with different exposure time. Universal Testing machine was used to measure the tensil strength and the fracture surfaces of the tensile specimens were observed by scanning Electron Micrisopy (SEM)

Mechanical characterization of ABS recyling based electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) by using injection molding

Nowadays, recycling process become more and more importantly mostly due to the impressive increase in the production of waste and to growing attention to the environment friendly. Increasing of demand of new products and waste electric and electronic of waste polymer from many sectors is being recycled to reduce an economic, environment and energy issues. According to Rosa et al., (2010) and Tarantili et al., (2010), the term of polymer usually refers to thermoplastic material rather than thermosets and some typical representative’s acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS), polycarbonates (PC), polyamides (PA) and poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET)