Empty fruit bunches of oil palm is a waste of oil palm industries that contain high celluloid fibers as raw material for pulp production. On the other hand, cellulose fibers have been used as fillers to improve mechanical properties of polypropylene matrix. However, there is polarity difference between the cellulose fillers and the polymer matrix so a compatibilizer is needed to decrease the polarity of cellulose filler. This can be done by chemical modification of the filler surface such as by acetylating reaction. In this work pulp of empty fruit bunches of oil palm was acetylated by pretreatment at 60°C for two hours, and at 80°C and 100°C for one hour by addition 30% perchloric acid as catalyst. The result of FT.IR and DTA analyses indicated that acetylating of empty fruit bunches pulp occurred at hydroxyl groups of cellulose chain, which was mainly on the surface of the empty fruit bunches pulp of oil palm. Compatibility of polymer blends of polypropylene containing acetylated pulp of empty fruit bunches (ratio 60/40) was higher compared to that containing fresh pulp filler, which was indicated by increasing of tensile strength of the blend. SEM photograph of the blend also indicated homogeneous surface due to better dispersion of the filler in the polypropylene matrix. Analysis of FT.IR revealed that were no changes on carbonyl absorptions of the blends, which indicated of occurrence of only physical interaction between polypropylene matrix and the filler.

D0100525