Browsing by Author "Bandara, T.A.R.W.M.M.C.G."

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    Cellulose Whiskers Extracted from Banana Pseudo-Stem as Reinforcing Filler for Natural Rubber Tyre Treads Using Latex Intercalation Method
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2014) Bandara, T.A.R.W.M.M.C.G.
    Reinforcing the rubber compounds using cellulose fibre is an emerging trend in rubber industry because of unique physical properties of cellulose fibre. In this study cellulose fibres were extracted from pseudo-stem of banana using alkali treatments and converted into cellulose whiskers (CW) with high pressure defibrillation followed by acid treatment and bleaching. The CW was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and Particle Size Analyzer. Both FTIR and XRD conforms the cellulose structure. XRD studies showed that the percent crystallinity of bleached fibres is about 69%. The particle size shows a bimodal distribution where approximately 21% of the sample has average size of 110 nm and the rest has the size of 795 nm. The purified CW was intercalated in diluted natural rubber (NR) centrifuged latex in order to prepare CW/NR composites and converted into rubber sheets. Mooney viscosity and stress relaxation coefficient of CW/NR composites were measured. The lowest Mooney viscosity and the highest stress relaxation coefficient were observed in CW/NR composites ensuring higher processability. The compounds were prepared in an internal mixture according to a tyre tread formulation keeping the sample without CW as the control. Cure characteristics were evaluated at 120°C and physical properties were evaluated on par with the ASTM standards. The highest cure rate and better scorch time were observed in CW/NR composite. The density, hardness, resilience, cut & chip and tensile strength of the composite were superior while tear strength and abrasion volume loss were inferior to the control. In overall, it reveals that cellulose whiskers have a great potential to use as reinforcing material for natural rubber tyre tread compounds. Keywords: natural rubber, banana fibre, cellulose nano-whiskers, latex intercalation
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    Cellulose Whiskers Extracted from Banana Pseudo-Stem as Reinforcing Filler for Natural Rubber Tyre Treads Using Latex Intercalation Method
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2018) Bandara, T.A.R.W.M.M.C.G.; Etampawala, T.N.B.; Kularathne, S.; Wijesinghe, H.G.I.M.; Senevirathna, A.M.W.K.
    Reinforcing the rubber compounds using cellulose fibre is an emerging trend in rubber industry because of unique physical properties of cellulose fibre. In this study, cellulose fibres were extracted from pseudo-stern of banana using alkali treatments and converted into cellulose whiskers (CW) with high pressure defibrillation followed by acid treatment and bleaching. The CW was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffractometry (XRD) and Particle Size Analyzing. Both FTIR and XRD confirm the cellulose structure. XRD studies showed that the percentage crystallinity of bleached fibres is about 69%. The particle size shows a bimodal distribution where approximately 21% of the sample has average size of 110 nm and the rest has the size of 795 nm. The purified CW was intercalated in diluted natural rubber (NR) centrifuged latex in order to prepare CW/NR composites and converted into rubber sheets. Mooney viscosity and stress relaxation coefficient of CW/NR composites were measured. The lowest Mooney viscosity and the highest stress relaxation coefficient were observed in CW/NR composites ensuring higher processability. The compounds were prepared in an internal mixture according to a tyre tread formulation, keeping the sample without CW as the control. Cure characteristics were evaluated at 120 °C and physical properties were evaluated on par with the ASTM standards. The highest cure rate and better scorch time were observed in CW/NR composite. The density, hardness, resilience, cut & chip and tensile strength of the composite were superior while tear strength and abrasion volume loss were inferior to the control. In overall, we observed that cellulose whiskers have a great potential to use as a reinforcing material for natural rubber tyre tread compounds.
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    Cellulose Whiskers Extracted from Banana Pseudo-Stem as Reinforcing Filler for Natural Rubber Tyre Treads Using Latex Intercalation Method
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2017) Bandara, T.A.R.W.M.M.C.G.
    Reinforcing the rubber compounds using cellulose fibre is an emerging trend in rubber industry because of unique physical properties of cellulose fibre. In this study cellulose fibres were extracted from pseudo-stem of banana using alkali treatments and converted into cellulose whiskers (CW) with high pressure defibrillation followed by acid treatment and bleaching. The CW was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and Particle Size Analyzer. Both FTIR and XRD conforms the cellulose structure. XRD studies showed that the percent crystallinity of bleached fibres is about 69%. The particle size shows a bimodal distribution where approximately 21% of the sample has average size of 110 nm and the rest has the size of 795 nm. The purified CW was intercalated in diluted natural rubber (NR) centrifuged latex in order to prepare CW/NR composites and converted into rubber sheets. Mooney viscosity and stress relaxation coefficient of CW/NR composites were measured. The lowest Mooney viscosity and the highest stress relaxation coefficient were observed in CW/NR composites ensuring higher processability. The compounds were prepared in an internal mixture according to a tyre tread formulation keeping the sample without CW as the control. Cure characteristics were evaluated at 120°C and physical properties were evaluated on par with the ASTM standards. The highest cure rate and better scorch time were observed in CW/NR composite. The density, hardness, resilience, cut & chip and tensile strength of the composite were superior while tear strength and abrasion volume loss were inferior to the control. In overall, it reveals that cellulose whiskers have a great potential to use as reinforcing material for natural rubber tyre tread compounds. Keywords: natural rubber, banana fibre, cellulose nano-whiskers, latex intercalation
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    Surface Modification of Cellulose Micro Fibrils Extracted from Banana Pseudo-Stem Using Bis-[3-(triethoxysilyl) propyl] tetrasulfide
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2019-02) Bandara, T.A.R.W.M.M.C.G.; Wijesinghe, H.G.I.M.; Alakolanga, A.G.A.W.; Senavirathna, A.M.W.K.
    Cellulose as the most abundant biomolecule on the earth, it is on investigations to be used in several applications as a remedy for the exploitation of non-renewable resources and mismanagement of agro-industrial wastes. Banana (Musa sapientum) fibre is a promising source of cellulose which can be derived after harvesting while the majority of the pseudostems are used as a low-cost feedstock for the preparation of compost. However, the cellulose itself is not compatible with most of the materials especially, with non-polar matrices. Therefore, the extracted cellulose has to be surface modified. In this study, micro-fibrillated cellulose was prepared following an alkali treatment coupled with highpressure defibrillation and acid treatments on fibre extracted from pseudo-stem. The resulted micro-fibrillated cellulose was characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cellulose structure was confirmed. XRD studies showed 69% crystallinity of micro-fibrillated cellulose. The particle size shows a bimodal distribution where approximately 21% of the sample has an average size of 110 nm and the rest is in averaged 795 nm. The prepared micro-fibrillated cellulose was surface modified using Bis-[3-(triethoxysilyl) propyl] tetrasulfide (TESPT) following rigorous solvent extractions with ethanol and acetone through cellulose membrane. With the surface modification, the percentage crystallinity has increased up to 77.8%. Moreover, the surface modification was confirmed by the results of FTIR spectroscopy showing the stretching vibration of Si-O-C bond at 1031 cm-1 indicating that the surface modification was successful.