| Summary: | In this research, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to measure the amount and rate of change in the weight (weight loss) of abaca fibre reinforced high impact polystyrene (HIPS) composites as a function of temperature. The function determined the composition of abaca fibre reinforced HIPS composites on predicting the thermal stability. The optimum composites designed with composition of abaca fibre 40 wt%; maleic anhydride 1 and 3 wt%, impact modifier 4 and 6 wt%, respectively. This paper studied the thermal characteristic of abaca fibre, reinforced HIPS composites as compared to the neat HIPS. The measurements were carried out in temperatures ranging from 25 to 600°C at heating rate 20°C min-1 and nitrogen gas flow of 50 ml min-1. The results from TGA analysis have shown that the combination among the coupling agent maleic anhydride, impact modifier and abaca fibre has improved the thermal stability of composites.
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