Renewable Filler as Glove Reinforcing Agent

Velo, Kannan (2024) Renewable Filler as Glove Reinforcing Agent. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Fillers play an essential role in glove production to enhance the mechanical properties and to reduce the production cost, however, fillers used by Top Glove Corporation Berhad are non-renewable. Cellulose is a potential renewable filler which can be incorporated into Acrilonitrile Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR) to produce gloves, but cellulose dispersion sold in the market is expensive. Hence, this study aims to extract cellulose from renewable sources, wastepaper (WP), rice husk (RH) and sugarcane bagasse (SCB). In this study, cellulose was extracted using low concentration of sulphuric acid H2SO4 which is 1 mol l-1 (M). The extracted cellulose fibres were characterized using FTIR, SEM, and Zeta potential. FTIR analysis proved that the cellulose fibres were successfully extracted. Zeta potential analysis shows that, all the cellulose fibres extracted exhibit a negative surface charge however SGB cellulose exhibits the highest negative charge on the surface (-10.1mV). SEM images of the extracted cellulose fibres revealed only for WP cellulose, individual fibres were clearly visible. RH and SCB cellulose were seen as the fibres crumpled together. The percentage yield for WP, RH and SCB cellulose are 25%, 31% and 24% respectively. Extracted cellulose fibres were then incorporated into the NBR formulation in different amounts from 0phr,1phr,2phr,3phr,4phr and 5phr to produce thin NBR films. The NBR films prepared were then used for mechanical testing to obtain tensile strength, modulus at 300% elongation(M300) and force at break. The mechanical test results were used to measure the mechanical enhancement property of the extracted filler. A 73%, 81% and 97% increase in tensile strength was observed for the NBR film containing 5 phr of WP, RH and SCB cellulose fibres respectively in comparison with NBR film without the cellulose fibres before ageing. This aligns with the study by Blanchard et al.,[8] whereby the increase in strength is due to the efficient transfer of stress from the matrix of the rubber to the cellulose and the covalent bonding between the rubber chains which increases the resistance to yield and failure. M 300 for the NBR film with 5 phr of WP, RH and SCB cellulose fibres increased 35%, 29% and 35% respectively in comparison with NBR film without cellulose fibres before ageing. These results align with the previous study done by Mohammad et al., [145] and Blanchard et al., [8] whereby the M 300 increased with increasing amount of cellulose. The force at break (FAB) values of NBR film before ageing with 5phr WP and RH cellulose fibres increased 49% and 53% respectively but for SCB cellulose only 14 % increment in force at break was observed. The addition of 5phr of cellulose shows significant increase in the force at break value compared to the control sample without cellulose. The Exilva commercial cellulose exhibits the lowest tensile strength and FAB value compared to WP, RH and SCB before and after ageing at 5phr filler loading