Karakterisasi Termoplastik Polipropilena (PP) dengan Filler Nanosilika Abu Boiler Kelapa Sawit (ABKS) yang Disintesis Menggunakan Alat Refluks

Abstract

The production of PP thermoplastic with palm oil boiler ash nanosilica filler synthesized using the reflux device has been carried out. The synthesis of palm oil boiler ash nanosilica (ABKS) was carried out with 7M HCl and 5M KOH solvent in a ratio of 1:8. The synthesized nanosilica was then characterized using XRD and obtained an average size of 12.48 nm. Based on the XRF characterization results, it is known that there are 56.73% SiO2 compounds in the ABKS nanosilica powder, 37.19% in PP thermoplastic and the most abundant element is Si 17.38%. The composition of each PP/ABKS nanosilica was varied (100/0, 99/1, 97/3, 95/5 and 93/7% by weight) and mechanical property tests were carried out in the form of tensile strength, elongation at break and modulus of elasticity using ASTM D638 standard. The results of the mechanical test with the tensile strength value at the composition (99/1% by weight) of 21,509 MPa, the elongation at break value at the composition (99/1% by weight) of 301.13%, and the modulus of elasticity value at the composition (97/3% by weight) of 334.52 MPa. SEM test results on thermoplastic samples still show the presence of agglomerates and air bubbles arising from the plastic. The addition of ABKS nanosilica as a filler has proven to be able to improve the mechanical properties of PP thermoplastic in terms of tensile strength and modulus of elasticity compared to PP without filler (100/0% by weight).