Effect of treatment on the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of oil-palm-fiber-reinforced phenolformaldehyde composites

The thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of oil-palm-fiber-reinforced untreated (Sample 1) and differently treated composites were measured with the transient plane source technique at room temperature and under normal pressure. All the composites were 40% oil-palm fiber by weight. The fibers were treated with alkali (Composite 2), silane (Composite 3), and acetic acid (Composite 4) and reinforced in a phenolformaldehyde matrix. The thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the composites increased after treatment to different extents. The thermal conductivity of the treated fibers as well as of the untreated fibers was calculated theoretically. The model results show that the thermal conductivity of the untreated fiber was smaller than the thermal conductivity of the treated fibers. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 38: 916–921, 2000