Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Kenaf Reinforced Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU)-Natural Rubber (NR) Composites

In this paper, natural rubber (NR) was mixed with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and kenaf as filler reinforcement for the polymer composite. Mixing the material using the internal mixer and hot press machine was able to blend the material homogeneously. Investigation of the new polymer composite characterisation was carried out by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), along with tensile, flexural and impact tests. The TGA for the polymer composite achieved 322 °C before degradation and increase in tensile and impact strength with the increase of TPU in the polymer composite matrices were observed. The result indicated an improvement in tensile, flexural and impact strength for the kenaf filled TPU-NR composites. The mixing of kenaf fibre and TPU-NR polymer showed degradation that was gradually diminishing turned into ashes. TGA result showed all compositions of kenaf filled TPU-NR composites samples shared the same peak temperature, being degraded at 600 °C.