Study Of Polyvinyl Alcohol (Pvoh) Added With Calcined Cuttlebone And Montmorillonite (Mmt)

Thum, Jia-Yi (2020) Study Of Polyvinyl Alcohol (Pvoh) Added With Calcined Cuttlebone And Montmorillonite (Mmt). Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects on calcined cuttlebone reinforced polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH)/ montmorillonite (MMT) blends. Generally, polyvinyl alcohol-cuttlebone-montmorillonite (PVOH-cuttlebone-MMT) nanocomposites were prepared using solution casting method. Calcined cuttlebone particles were added to the PVOH matrix at different amount of 2 and 5 phr with fixed MMT ranging from 1 to 3 phr. The results showed the tensile strength of cuttlebone added PVOH-MMT composites at fixed 1 phr MMT was observed marginally lower when the cuttlebone increased from 2 phr to 5 phr due to the poor distribution of agglomerated particles. Nevertheless, at higher fixed loading level of MMT, it was found that the addition of cuttlebone at high amount (5 phr) exhibited reinforcing effect in PVOH/ MMT blends. This also found to be consistent with the scanning electron microscopy observation where the dispersion of higher amount of cuttlebone in PVOH-MMT blends was noted to be more homogeneous than lower amount of cuttlebone. Besides, based on the X-ray diffraction analysis, the addition of cuttlebone has significantly enhanced the intercalation of effect of MMT particles in PVOH matrix. Furthermore, the infrared number of hydroxyl group for all composites reduced gradually with the increasing amount of cuttlebone. The addition of cuttlebone has shown the “red shift” effect indicating the formation of hydrogen bonding induced by cuttlebone. Lastly, lower enthalpy of melting was detected in relation to higher loading level of cuttlebone embedded in PVOH-MMT blends. In conclusion, the blending of cuttlebone in PVOH-MMT are favourable to obtain better properties of composites.

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