Isothermal Crystallization Kinetics and Mechanical Properties of PLA/Kenaf Biocomposite: Comparison Between Alkali Treated Kenaf Core and Bast Reinforcement

• Comparable Kenaf bast & core PLA composites flexural properties. • Comparable Kenaf bast & core PLA composites kinetics. • The insight of crystal growth thorugh Avrami model. Crystallization kinetics and mechanical properties of alkaline treated kenaf core and bast fibres as reinforcement in PLA composites were investigated. The crystallization rate and the percentage of crystallinity values were comparable in both samples, where the values were found to be 1.239 and 49.46% for KCC and 1.119 and 47.28% for KBC, respectively. The addition of kenaf fibre revealed the same reduction of the Avrami index at around 13% for both KBC and KCC indicating that the addition of fibre promotes growth in less spatial dimensions. The improvement on kinetics properties was supported by flexural testing that showed that there is no significant difference in flexural modulus and flexural strength between Kenaf core composite (KCC) and Kenaf bast composite (KBC). These findings shed a light on the potential utilization of kenaf core fibre as filler in matrix composite.