Tensile Properties of Polypropylene/Cocoa Pod Husk Biocomposites: Effect of Maleated Polypropylene Koay Seong Chun 1, a , Salmah Husseinsyah 1, b and Hakimah Osman 1, c 1 Division of Polymer Engineering, School of Materials Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Jejawi, Perlis, Malaysia a koayseongchun@hotmail.com, b irsalmah@unimap.edu.my, c hakimah@unimap.edu.my Keywords: Polypropylene, Cocoa Pod Husk, Meleated Polypropylene, Biocomposites. Abstract. Polypropylene/Cocoa Pod Husk (PP/CPH) biocomposites with different maleated polypropylene (MAPP) content were prepared via melt blending process using Brabender Plastrograph mixer. The tensile strength and tensile modulus of PP/CPH biocomposites increased with increasing of MAPP content. The PP/CPH biocomposites with 5 phr of MAPP showed the optimum improvement on tensile properties. However, the increased of MAPP content reduced the elongation at break of PP/CPH biocomposites. At 5 phr of MAPP content, PP/CPH biocomposites showed lowest elongation at break. Scanning electron microscope confirms the PP/CPH biocomposites with MAPP have better filler-matrix interaction and adhesion due to the effect of MAPP. Introduction Cocoa (Theobroma Cacao) was one of the important agricultural crops in several tropical countries [1]. Malaysia was second largest cocoa producer after in Asia countries. Cocoa pod husk (CPH) was a co-product after process of obtaining cocoa bean from cocoa pod and it has of high content of cellulose and lignin. Usually, the CPH was readily abundant and do not have any marketable value. Therefore, the utilizations of CPH as natural filler in thermoplastic materials will provide a new application route to CPH into useful resources for thermoplastic industry. Moverever, the utilization of CPH can bring economic benefit and reduce the environmental impact. Nowadays, there were numerous combinations of agricultural waste (such as palm kernel shell [2], coconut shell [3-6], rice husk [7], oil palm truck and oil palm empty fruit bunch [8]) and thermoplastic materials had been successfully developed by researchers. In Malaysia, Melsom Biodegradable Enterprise was already marketed a series of eco-friendly tableware from rice husk based thermoplastic biocomposites. In previous study, an ecopackging product had been developed from coconut shell and polylactic acid biodegradable thermoplastic [6]. Recently, the developments of polypropylene (PP)/natural filler biocomposites were majorly to replace the wooden fittings, fixtures and furniture [9]. This will reduced the forest consumption in cutting trees. In production of thermoplastic biocomposites, the incompatibility between natural filler and thermoplastic matrix are always an issue among researchers and industries. The presence of polarized hydroxyl groups on the surfaces of natural filler is hardly wetted by non-polar polymer matrix and it is difficult to achieve high mechanical properties [10]. Alternately, maleated polymer such as maleated polypropylene (MAPP) and maleated polyethylene (MAPE) are frequency used as coupling agent in polypropylene and polyethylene based biocomposites. There are many researchers reported the remarkable improvement on properties of biocomposites by adding maleated coupling agent [11-13]. In this study, MAPP was used as coupling agent on PP/CPH biocomposites. The effect of MAPP content on tensile properties of PP/CPH biocomposites was investigated. Advanced Materials Research Vol. 747 (2013) pp 645-648 © (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.747.645 All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP, www.ttp.net. (ID: 115.132.192.190-05/06/13,12:17:48)