KARAKTERISASI PENGARUH PENAMBAHAN MIKROPARTIKEL ORGANIK TERHADAP SIFAT MEKANIS KOMPOSIT ABAKA/EPOXY

Abaca natural fiber-reinforced composites (Musa Textile Nee) have been widely studied in materials engineering and has the potential to be used as alternative materials in biomedical applications. Abaca fiber has higher mechanical properties when compared to other natural fibers such as sisal, kenaf, and hemp. However, the use of natural fiber as a composite reinforcement material has a drawback, namely: its mechanical properties are below that of carbon fiber. Therefore, it is necessary to modify the natural fiber composites. This study aimed to determine the changes in the mechanical and physical properties of abaca/epoxy composites due to the addition of microparticles as an alternative AFO material. This study used abaca fiber which was alkalized using 6% NaOH for 36 hours. The composite was fabricated using hot press molding at a temperature of 100°C for 30 minutes with the volume fraction of abaca/microparticles/epoxy used, namely 15:5:80. Variations of microparticles used are chitosan, MCC, and activated carbon. Mechanical tests carried out are bending and tensile tests, each referring to ASTM D790-03 and ASTM D638-02. In addition, physical tests carried out were water absorption, SEM, and optical microscopy. The water absorption test referring to ASTM D570 with 336 hours of immersion. Every 12 hours, the composite specimen's weight was measured. The results showed that abaca/epoxy composites without the addition of microparticles reached the highest bending and tensile strength of 40.50 MPa and 45.7 MPa. In the water absorption test, the abaca/activated carbon/epoxy composite specimen had the lowest weight gain percentage, which was 7.7%. Then for the results of SEM photos and optical microscopes, tensile and bending specimens show the presence of voids in each composite variation, which can reduce the mechanical strength. Based on the tensile testing results of the abaca/epoxy composite with in the addition of microparticles, it was still below the carbon fiber reinforced composite, which reached 105.7 MPa. However, compared to polypropylene's standard AFO material strength, the abaca/activated carbon/epoxy composite has a higher bending strength of 60.43 MPa and tensile strength of 32.67 MPa. From these data, abaca/activated carbon/epoxy composites can be an alternative AFO material choice.