Influence of alkali treatment on thermal stability of polyester composites reinforced with Bambusa maculat fibers

The various species of bamboo plants cultivated in Indonesian people's plantations are apus bamboo (Gigantochloa apus) (GA), wulung bamboo (Gigantochloa atroviolacea) (GV), and tutul bamboo (Bambusa maculat) (BM). Apart from being used as a craft material and household utensils, bamboo can be made into natural fiber as a reinforcement for polyester composites. In this research, Bambusa maculat fiber was used. In this work, BM fibers were treated with Alkali with NaOH solutions with concentrations of 2, 5, and 8% by weight respectively at room temperature. The next procedure is that the BM fibers are used as composite reinforcing fibers, arranged unidirectional the polyester composites. The manufacturing technique is using  hot pressing molding technique. The effect of alkali concentration on the thermal performance of polyester composites was examined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. As the result,  the alkaline treatment of BM bamboo fiber with a NaOH concentration of 5%, causes the BM bamboo fiber as reinforcement and matrix to have a tight interface and strong interfacial bonding, allowing the composite to have the best thermal stability among other composites.