KARAKTERISASI SIFAT BENDING DAN WATER ABSORPTION PADA KOMPOSIT HIBRID BERPENGUAT SERAT SISAL DAN KARBON DENGAN VARIASI BAHAN MATRIKS
Abstract
Sisal is fiber which is environmentally friendly, elastic, and able to absorbs water easily. Carbon fiber has stronger characteristic than steel, but is way to light. Today, the composite sisal and carbon fiber is often studied for biomedical applications. So, this research conducted modification by mixing sisal and carbon fiber to improve the mechanical characteristic. The objective of the research is to find out the effect of some kind of matrix like polyester, epoxy, and PMMA towards the characteristics of bending and water absorption in hybrid composite with sisal and carbon to strenghten. Then, it is to find out whether or not the hybrid composite endures reduction on bending strenght after soaking.
Before making the composite, sisal fiber was treated with alkalization of 6% liquid NaOH for 36 hours. Meanwhile, the carbon fiber was soaked in liquid nitrogen (N2) for 10 minutes. Each of sisal and carbon was cut into 6 mm and 15 mm. A composites is made with cold press technique, with volume fraction of sisal and carbon fiber as much as 15% each and matrix of 70%. Then, it is molded for 1-8 hours. The test of bending and water absorption that each of them refers to ASTM D790M and ASTM D570 was carried out for all composite specimens. Besides, in this research, bending test was conducted before and after the specimen was soaked in the water for 216 hours (water absorption). The thickness and weight of the specimen of water absorption test were measured once in every 12 hours. The fault results of the bending test was characterized using optical microscope.
The results of the research show that the composite with PMMA matrix has the highest bending strength both before and after soaking i.e. 150.33 MPa, while composite with epoxy matrix and the one with polyester endure decrease on their bending strenght before and after soaking, i.e. 0.46% and 0.13%. The value of the bending strenght is related to the difference of the result of water absorption test, in which the composite with PMMA matrix shows the lowest increasing value on the thickness and weight, and each af them are 1.99% and 1.64%.