The effect of heat treatment on the mechanical properties of betel nut

• Main Author: Ibrahim Bin Mohamed Afni
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Betel nut; Vickers hardness; Heat treatment

The betel nut or Areca catechu is a fruit from a palm tree widely available usually in tropical Pacific, South and Southeast Asia and some parts of east Africa. Commonly used for digestive purposes around the world, the betel nut has been lacking of usage in the industrial purposes. Despite having great characteristic as a biofibre of reinforcement in a composite, few researches were made to truly understand the potential of the betel nut in the industrial aspect. In this thesis, I will discuss about the mechanical properties of the betel nut when it is being heat treated. Most of the past researches only use the husk part of the betel nut which is the fibrous part, but none of them used the nut in the middle of the fruit to study its mechanical properties. The scope of this study is to do a research about the nut of the betel nut fruit. The rationale to pursue the research is to obtain the new material that have potential to be a bio-composite. The methods that were used to test the betel nut is Vickers hardness test and fire resistance test. The new findings from this the best temperature to set for the heat treatment process to produce the betel nut with the highest hardness value and the suitability of the betel nut to be used as a fire resistance material.