Abstract :
Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites are widely developed
because of their relative low price and eco-friendly. The purpose of this study was
to identify the tensile strength and morphology of composite polypropylene with
reinforcement of sea pandanus leaves fiber.
The reinforcing materials used in the manufacture of composites were sea
pandanus leaves fiber and the matrix used was polypropylene plastic. Composite
fabrication method used compression molding and was heated at 250oC for 1 hour.
The variation used in this study was the fiber volume fraction variation of 20%,
25%, 30%, 35%, and 40%.
The tensile test results showed the highest tensile strength results for
composites with a volume fraction of 35% was 25.82 MPa, while the tensile strength
of the lowest composites with a volume fraction of 20% was 10,34 Mpa. Based on
SEM test results, there were voids, cracks, fibers pull out and dirt on the composite.