Abstract
Plastic consumption has continued to grow over the years. Meanwhile, conventional petroleum-based plastics are associated with challenges like environmental unsustainability. As a result, bio-based polymer composites have received much attention in past decades. Polymer matrices can not only be easily be reinforced with agricultural fibers to reduce price, but also improve mechanical and thermal properties. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of magnesium hydroxide modification on properties of K85 and K98 rice husk varieties in Uganda for their use as reinforcement in polymer composites. Raw rice husks underwent pre-treatment in 4% Mg(OH)2 concentration for 1 h at room temperature. Water absorption, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), energetic density (ED), and fuel value index (FVI) of rice husks were investigated. Raw husks exhibited higher water absorption capabilities (9.1–11.2%) than modified rice husks (5.6–5.89%). TGA confirmed that alkali modification of rice husks provides a higher resistance to thermal degradation than that of raw husks. Mean reactivity to char residues ratio reduced from 4.3 × 10−4 to 3 × 10−4 °C/min upon modification of K85 rice husks while modification of K98 rice husks led to increasing mean reactivity to char residues ratio by 11.4%. ED sharply reduced upon alkali modification of both K85 and K98 rice husks. FVI of rice husks greatly depended on the amount of ash in the rice husks. As such, K85 husks had higher FVI than K98 husks as the former had lower ash compositions (21.2%). The results suggest that alkali-modified rice husks can be successfully used as reinforcement in polymer composites.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Technical support from Yosevi Engineering Services Limited, www.yosevi.com is gratefully acknowledged.
Funding
This study received funding from the Volkswagen Foundation (Grant No. 96655 entitled “Enhanced flame retardancy of bio-composite plastics developed with rice husks and clay fillers”).
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VAY: conceptualization, experimental design; experimentation; writing—original draft; technical editing. ML: conceptualization; writing–original draft; technical editing; supervision; fund acquisition. PWO: methodology; investigation; technical editing; supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Yiga, V.A., Lubwama, M. & Olupot, P.W. Characterization of Rice Husks as Potential Reinforcement for Polymer Composites. Mater Circ Econ 3, 16 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42824-021-00031-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42824-021-00031-5