Characterisation of pineapple leaf fibre/poly(methacrylic acid) semi-interpenetrating network hydrogel

This work presented a novel semi-interpenetrating (semi-IPN) hydrogel of a poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) matrix by incorporating pineapple leaf fibre (PALF). The reinforcement significantly enhanced its mechanical properties, thermal stability, and pH-responsive swelling behavior. FTIR confirmed the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Noremylia Mohd Bakhori, Mohd Yusof Md Daud, Mohamad Zaki Hassan, Indran Suyambulingam
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:Results in Engineering
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123025012496
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Summary:This work presented a novel semi-interpenetrating (semi-IPN) hydrogel of a poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) matrix by incorporating pineapple leaf fibre (PALF). The reinforcement significantly enhanced its mechanical properties, thermal stability, and pH-responsive swelling behavior. FTIR confirmed the strong intermolecular interactions between PALF and PMAA while TGA and XRD show enhanced crosslinking and crystallinity with a cellulose I peak at 2θ = 22.5° and a crystallinity index of 86.07 %. At pH 7, the hydrogel expanded 2.3 times, demonstrating pH-sensitive swelling as well. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed the highest storage modulus (E’ = 5.50 MPa), damping factor (tan δ = 0.33), and glass transition temperature (Tg = 100 °C) of PALF/PMAA semi-IPN2 confirming its good energy dissipation, and high stiffness. Conversely to pure PMAA hydrogels, the optimised PALF/PMAA hydrogel exhibited a significantly greater compressive strength and Young’ Modulus of 184.80 and 26.30 MPa, respectively. SEM imaging verified that PALF was uniformly distributed and had porous shape, both of which enhanced the mechanical characteristics. This is the first study to use PALF as a reinforcing agent in PMAA-based hydrogels, creating a strong, pH-responsive material with great potential for biomedical, environmental, and drug delivery applications.
ISSN:2590-1230