Noraishah Abdul Latip creator author. text theses my 2022 monographic eng xiii, 68 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 30 cm. + 1 CD-ROM Nowadays, the field of natural fibers-reinforced plastic composites has rapidly evolving because of environmental awareness and low economic cost with other advantages like low density and relatively high mechanical properties. However one of the major weaknesses of this system is its vulnerability to fire. Hence, this research aims to formulate a bio-composite that emphasises thermal and flammability performance by combining various waste streams as a source of recyclable raw material for fiber composite production. Combination of fly ash (FA) from industrial waste as silica-based flame retardant and biomass oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fiber reinforced municipal solid waste, recycle polypropylene (RPP) with Maleinated polypropylene (MAPP) as stabilizer have been conducted. This study involved several phases; the first one is the alkaline pre-treatment of fiber to improve the interfacial adhesion of fiber with polymer matrix due to the loss of hydroxyl group. This process involved three different alkali solution; Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH), Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) and Aluminium Hydroxide (Al(OH)3) with 15% (w/v) concentration at 130°C and for 40 minutes where fibre to solution ratio at 1:10. Their physico-chemical and structural behaviour were studied in detail by several analyses; Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD). The best-treated fibers from the KOH treatment have been chosen then compounding by different formulation of OPEFB fiber, RPP, FA and MAPP have been done followed by molding process with hot press machine to prepare the samples. This process has represented as the second phase. The last phase involved the flammability performance through Limiting Oxygen Index (LOI) and Underwriters Laboratory 94 (UL94) analysis. Based on the result gained in the first phase, the removal of unwanted component such as lignin, pectin and hemicellulose that also responsible for flame degradation properties can be seen clearly at the peak around 1729.74 𝑐𝑚−1 for FTIR analysis for NaOH and KOH pretreatment. Supported by the split of hemicellulose and lignin in SEM analysis that cause the fiber to more porous can be observed significantly compared to the treatment by Al(OH)3 solution and raw OPEFB fiber. Meanwhile, XRD analysis revealed that KOH treatment shows the highest crystallinity index by 60.8% yet only slightly different from NaOH treatment, 60.5%. In the second phase, six samples have been prepared with different formulations along with the characterization process by several analysis like mechanical testing, SEM, Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). It was observed that in all addition of FA into the formulation of RPP and OPEFB fiber, there were significant lowering and quite a similar pattern in the variation of tensile strength (reduction from 4% to 50%) and Elongation at the break with the increase in fly ash content as this result was supported in SEM imaging where there were lots of pulled out shape can be seen. However, as for TGA testing, the lowest weight loss by 33% goes to the sample of the mixture RPP/EFB with the most significant FA loading, which is by 75%. The last phase involved the test specimen thickness of 3-13mm, standard for the safety of flammability of plastic material (UL94) described the sample with highest FA content (75%) gave the burning rate of 19 (mm/min), which showed as H-B (slow burning) rated materials that considered as "self-extinguishing" even though the LOI resulted in the material as combustible. Overall, this study showed that the significant of alkaline pre-treatment by KOH on the OPEFB fiber and the best formulation with the involvement of 75% FA concentration can be used as eco-friendly material to enhance thermal performance in RPP/OPEFB composite production. specialized Noraishah Abdul Latip Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology Thesis (Master of Science) -- Universiti Malaysia Pahang – 2022 Includes bibliographical references Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology Dissertations Universities and colleges Dissertations Theses THE0009385(Local) UMP 221027 20251125110132.0 eng