Characterisation of Oil Palm Fibres as a Strengthening Material in Ceramic Membranes

Ceramic membranes can be fabricated with low-cost materials such as Sayong ball clay, which is cheap and commonly available in Malaysia. Readily commercialised ceramic membranes available in the market use advanced ceramics such as alumina, which is quite expensive. Therefore, low-cost ceramic membranes are highly desirable. However, the mechanical properties of low-cost ceramic membranes are lower. Due to this, this work studied oil palm fibre (OPF) as a strengthening material for ceramic membranes through the gel casting technique. The effect of amount of OPF content on the properties of the ceramic membrane was studied. The process of gel casting involves the mixing of Sayong ball clay powder with the monomer, dispersant, solvent, initiator, catalyst, and pore former. Rectangular samples of ceramic membrane were fabricated with varied OPF content (0, 5, and 10 wt% of OPF). The physical characterisation (shrinkage, apparent porosity, and bulk density), microstructure analysis, and mechanical strength analysis were carried out on the ceramic membrane sintered at a temperature of 1,050 °C. The apparent porosity and bulk density of the samples were calculated according to the Archimedes method. The effect of adding OPF on the strength of the membrane was examined through the three-point bending test. The membranes with the addition of OPF showed varying bulk densities from 1.863 to 1.953 g/cm3 and apparent porosities ranging from 32.93 to 30.17% at different OPF contents. In addition, the membrane exhibited an average pore size of 7.56 nm. The flexural strength of the membranes increased from 5.684 to 8.337 MPa as the wt% of OPF increased. As a conclusion, the OPF had successfully increased the strength of the membrane.