Morphological and mechanical properties of treated kenaf fiber/MMT clay reinforced PLA hybrid biocomposites

In this paper Treated Kenaf fiber/PLA based hybrid biocomposites are prepared by dispersing the different MMT (montmorillonite clay) contents by Screw extruder, Compression molding process. The PLA based bio-composites are fabricated with 30% of Treated (with 6%NaOH) Kenaf fiber and 1%, 2%, 3% nanoclay filler. The fabricated 70PLA-30TK, 30TKF-1MMT-69PLA, 30TKF-2MMT-68PLA and 30TKF-3MMT-67PLA biocomposite are used to characterize the tensile, flexural properties of hybrid biocomposite. The 1 % MMT clay included PLA/treated kenaf fiber demonstrates superior mechanical properties than other biocomposite. SEM analysis discloses that MMT clay improves both micro-structure (morphology) and load transfer capacity.