Biopolymer-Natural Fiber Cement Based Composite: A Greener Construction Materials

• Main Authors: A. Zuraida, S. Norshahida
• Format: Conference Paper
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Concrete; Bio-protein; Fiber; Bending strength; Interfacial
• Online Access: http://ddms.usim.edu.my/handle/123456789/6114
• Institution: Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia

The concrete industries in Malaysia have been active, integrated and growing. They are currently seeking out new markets, invest in the future and raise productivity and quality. It is generally known that ordinary cement based composite have been long occupied in industry because of it is relatively low price and uncomplicated processing product. Even so, the concern now lies in creation of environmental friendly with higher performance type cement based composite. Faced by these adversaries, cement industry promote widespread application of best practices and technologies to reduce the amount of limestone calcinations, energy usage and emissions of carbon dioxide. Hence, there should be greater utilization of ingredients, materials and systems that can improve the functionality and durability of cement products. The search for alternative binder or cement replacement materials lead to the discovery of the potential use of agriculture wastes. Amongst the various types of residues from agriculture industry, coconut fiber is the most economical in terms of availability. The use coir fiber in cementitious material is assumed to be effective toward produce lightweight product. On the other hand, the employment of biopolymer in building material is expected to result in better processability and a reduction of final material brittleness. Thus, bio-protein egg albumen was employed to toughen and regulate the qualities of cement composite. It is timely that we have developed biopolymeradded cement composite with natural fiber as reinforcement. Hence, the efforts currently is under way in producing lightweight cement composite with use of agriculture waste, coir fiber, and biopolymer, egg albumen in turn to reduce the use of Portland cement which at the same time provide composite with better attribute. Research shown good prospects in terms of properties that are comparable to ordinary cement based composite. This work, focused on evaluating the feasibility of randomly distributed short coir fiber reinforced cement composite using egg albumen as the binder and to compare with the ordinary cement composite. The results indicated that the uses of albumen as binder significantly improve the post-cracking flexural stress of composite. Bending strength of -6.719 MPa was obtained for albumen-binder composite which is 65 % higher compared to waterbinder composite. Owing to different in bonding strength, the fracture surfaces observed different hydration bond formed between fiber and matrix. These behavior correlates with the interfacial characteristics of fiber-matrix which confirmed by SEM. On the basis of the results, this is a good illustration of a holistic approach towards competent exploitation of natural resources, safe disposal of waste, and new making of high quality with comparable cost concrete.