Enhancement of Physical and Mechanical Properties of Sugar Palm Fiber via Vacuum Resin Impregnation - Advanced Materials for Agriculture, Food and Environmental Safety - page 125

where m 1 = mass of i ber before soaking (g), m 2 = mass of i ber at er soaking
in distilled water for 24 h.
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an optical microscope
model Lieca MS 5 (with constant magnii cation of 400x) were used to
observe the surface and cross-sectional views of the sugar palm i bers at er
impregnation.

5.2.2.3 Determination of Tensile Properties

h e control impregnation agent along with the PF- and UP-impregnated
i bers at various impregnation pressures underwent single i ber tensile
testing. A total of 150 specimens were prepared and tested at room tem-
perature of 23 C and a relative humidity of 50% using an Instron type uni-

versal testing machine with a load capacity of 5 kN.

°

5.2.2.4 Method of Result Analysis

h e mean of the samples was used to show the changes in physical and ten-
sile properties of the impregnated i bers, while Standard error was used to
show the signii cant dif erence between the variables. h e results were ana-
lyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) sot ware. A
one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Duncan's multiple range test, was
used to determine whether increasing impregnation pressure would show
any signii cant ef ects on the physical and tensile properties of the i ber.
h e mean followed with the dif erent letters (a, b, c, d, e, and f ) for each
series (1000, 900, 800, 700, 600, and 500 mmHg) in impregnation agents
was signii cantly dif erent. For the analysis, an alpha level of 0.05 for all sta-
tistical tests was used. Linear regression analysis was used to show a trend
line in the series data. It revealed whether a particular data set of sugar palm
i ber increased or decreased in physical and mechanical properties at er an
increase in impregnation pressure. h e trend lines were used to describe the
relationship strength between the two variables (impregnation pressure and
impregnation agent), to assess whether these variables have any relationship
at all, and to determine if these variables contain redundant information.

5.3 Results and Discussion

5.3.1 Physical Properties of Impregnated Fiber

h e weight percentage gain (WPG) of impregnated sugar palm i bers at
various impregnation pressures is shown in Figure 5.1. h e results showed
that the weight of resin absorbed in the i ber (at er polymerizing) was due