Nik Noriman Zulkepli
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Preferred name
Nik Noriman Zulkepli
Official Name
Nik Noriman , Zulkepli
Alternative Name
Zulkepli, N. N.
Noriman, Nik Zulkepli
Noriman, N. Z.
Zulkepli, Nik N.
Zulkepli, Nik Noriman
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Scopus Author ID
55898485400
Researcher ID
J-6410-2015

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  • Publication
    Application of coal bottom ash as raw material for concrete brick in housing construction
    ( 2020-03-25)
    Muhammad Azizi Azizan
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    ;
    Nurfadzillah Ishak
    ;
    Hazry Desa
    ;
    Omar S. Dahham
    ;
    Umar M.U.
    ;
    Jaya H.
    Coal and coal-fired power plants are crucial for supplying global energy demand. However, coal-fired power plants produce significant quantities of bottom ash as by-products. Through these power plants, it produces approximately 18 tons of bottom ash each day. Malaysia has the challenging task of dealing with an increasing amount of waste generated by power plants each year. The high cost of construction and operation of incineration plants coupled with a lack of landfills have given rise to the need for waste minimization and recycling. The use of coal ash in concrete is a new dimension in concrete mix design and if applied on large scale can revolutionize the construction industry, by economizing the construction cost and decreasing the ash content. The used of the coal bottom ash in the concrete brick can reduce the wastage of the coal bottom ash in Malaysia, beside that the cost of the housing can be reduced. In addition, the sustainability in the housing construction in Malaysia can be achieved using the wastage material in the construction.
  • Publication
    Roles of linear alkyl chain alkylation on reinforcement of graphene based polypropylene nanocomposites
    ( 2020-03-01)
    Hidayah N.M.S.
    ;
    Liu Wei Wen
    ;
    Khe C.S.
    ;
    Lai C.W.
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    Alkylation becomes one of the alternatives to cope with mixing compatibility issue that arises during melt mixing between graphene oxide (GO) and polypropylene (PP) by grafting linear alkyl chains onto GO surface. Alkylated (AGO-PP) and alkylated reduced (ARGO-PP) nanocomposites showed improvement in tensile strength and Young's modulus values than neat PP as nanofillers loadings increased. However, the elongation at break for both AGO-PP and ARGO-PP nanocomposites displayed lower values than neat PP. This indicates that the interfacial interaction between nanofillers and PP was enhanced. On the contrary, the decrement in elongation at break in both nanocomposites than neat PP was found which caused by the restriction of movement at the interface layer between nanofillers and PP matrix.
  • Publication
    The Effects of Epoxidised Natural Rubber (ENR-50) on Cure Characteristics and Tensile Properties of Recycled Natural Rubber Catheter Filled Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM) Vulcanizates
    ( 2020-11-24)
    Muhammad Salihin Zakaria
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    ;
    Nordin R.M.
    ;
    Khairul Anwar Abdul Halim
    ;
    Hanafi H.
    The effect of epoxidised natural rubber (ENR-50) on cure characteristics and tensile properties (tensile strength, modulus at 100% elongation and elongation at break) of recycled natural rubber catheter filled ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) vulcanizates were studied. The scorch time, t2 of EPDM/NRr blends with and without ENR-50 increased as NRr content increased while the cure time, t90 is decreased. However, with the presence of ENR-50 in EPDM/NRr blends, the t2 was longer and t90 was shorter than the uncompatibilized EPDM/NRr blends. The minimum torque, ML, of EPDM/NRr blend with and without ENR-50 relatively increased while maximum torque, MH, decreased with increasing NRr content. With the presence of ENR-50, the compatibilized EPDM/NRr blends exhibit a lower value of ML and MH compared with uncompatibilized blends. The incorporation of ENR-50 in EPDM/NRr blends enhanced the tensile strength and tensile modulus of compatibilized EPDM/NRr blends compared to uncompatibilized EPDM/NRr blends. The elongation at break (Eb) of compatibilized EPDM/NRr blends is lower than the uncompatibilized EPDM/NRr blends at all blend ratios. This indicated that ENR 50 improved the curing characteristics and tensile properties of the compound.
  • Publication
    Effects of sodium hydroxide treatment on date seeds reinforced LLDPE composites: FTIR and gel content analyses
    ( 2020-03-25)
    Elnaid A.
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    ;
    Omar S. Dahham
    ;
    Azizan M.A.
    ;
    Hazry Desa
    ;
    Dahham S.S.
    ;
    Umar M.U.
    The biocomposites from linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and date seeds (DS) were successfully synthesized using extrusion and injuction molding process respectively. The effects of different Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) concentration (3, 6, and 9 wt.%) on the structural properties of LLDPE/DS composites were invistigated using FTIR and Gel Content test. Results showed that a decrease on the absorption band at 3346 - 3347 cm-1 of treated samples as compared with untreated sample due to the removal of the hemicellulose component from the treated samples. Furthermore, the peak at 1050 cm-1 has slightly reduced as the NaOH added. The gel content of the treated samples have slightly increased as compared with LLDPE control, which means the number of crosslinks between LLDPE and DS increased in presence of NaOH. Furthermore, The treated sample with 6 wt.% NaOH showed relatively higher gel content compared to untreated sample and other treated samples.
  • Publication
    The study of monosodium glutamate application as a cross linker in tissue scaffold application
    ( 2020-03-25)
    Nasir N.F.M.
    ;
    Roslan M.R.
    ;
    Cheng Ee Meng
    ;
    Zulaini T.N.S.
    ;
    Khalid M.F.A.
    ;
    Wan Azani Wan Mustafa
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    ;
    Dahham O.S.
    Tissue engineering, especially in bone scaffolds, significantly demands to act as the replacement for the defection of bone. Cross linker in the fabrication of scaffold plays a major role to optimize the connection between the pores. In this study, four different scaffolds of the concentration of crosslinker were fabricated using Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). The fixed ratio of HA: starch: 40: 60, was used in the fabrication of the scaffold. The concentration of the MSG were varied into 0%, 10%, 20% and 30%. Solvent - casting and salt leaching was used as scaffold fabrication technique. The scaffold's mechanical and the morphological properties were characterized by mechanical testing and water adsorption test. Scaffold with 10% concentration of MSG as a crosslinking agent shows the highest mechanical properties and the lowest in the water adsorption test, therefore, further study should be made to investigate the biochemistry reaction which happened at this percentage which shows the best crosslinking affect among all.
  • Publication
    Evaluation of shrinkage and weld line strength of thick flat part in injection moulding process
    ( 2021-10-01)
    Nasir S.M.
    ;
    Shayfull Zamree Abd. Rahim
    ;
    Sharif S.
    ;
    Abdellah A.E.h.
    ;
    Mohd Fathullah Ghazli@Ghazali
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    This paper evaluates the shrinkage and strength of weld line using Design of Experiment and Response Surface Methodology in multi-objective optimisation utilising the injection moulding parameters. A simulation process was conducted to determine the recommended setting of injection moulding parameters and the range of the variable parameters. An experimental work was conducted according to the experimental design, where regression models were established to predict the shrinkage and weld line strength. A new set of process parameters setting was found to achieve the optimum shrinkage and weld line strength of the moulded part. The results of shrinkage and weld line strength using an optimal parameter setting after optimisation process were compared with the results obtained using the recommended setting from Autodesk Moldflow Insight software. It was found that the shrinkages in the normal to and parallel to the melt flow directions were reduced by 5.969% and 4.375%, respectively, through the predicted model generated using RSM. On the other hand, the weld line strength improved by 3.758% as compared to the weld line strength obtained from the recommended setting. The shrinkages in both parallel to and normal to the melt flow directions using multi-objective optimisation were reduced by 5.891% and 4.160%, respectively, while the weld line strength was improved by 3.756%, using the combination of the following parameters; 69.93 °C of coolant inlet temperature, 270 °C of melt temperature, 70 MPa of packing pressure and 8 s of cooling time. The predicted errors ranged between 0.2 and 14.5% during the validation experiments. The packing pressure was found to be the most significant parameter affecting the shrinkage in both parallel to and normal to melt flow directions. The coolant inlet temperature on the other hand was the most significant parameter affecting the weld line strength.
  • Publication
    Properties of natural rubber/ethylene propylene diene monomer/recycled latex catheter (NR/EPDM/rLC) ternary blends: Cure characteristics and hardness
    ( 2013)
    Lokman Hakim Ibrahim
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    ;
    Sam Sung Ting
    ;
    Luqman Musa
    ;
    Rosniza Hamzah
    Currently, the recycled rubber widely being used in rubber technology. Due to difficulty on reprocessing techniques, the vulcanized rubbers being a big problem in the recycled field. One of the main forms of discharge rubber is to apply as fuel to generate electricity and steam, this process is still in use but creates a new problem of air pollution and is also a low value to recovery process of the rubber waste [. Polymer compounds are being used extensively in numerous applications such as roofing and mulch product. A rubber blends can offer a better properties that gives high performance in application area that being used
  • Publication
    Studies on characteristic of glycerol-kenaf pellet via fluidization drying process toward energy produced
    ( 2020-03-25)
    Zainuddin H.H.M.
    ;
    Mohd Al-Hafiz Mohd Nawi
    ;
    Kasim M.S.
    ;
    Mohd. Hazwan Mohd. Hanid
    ;
    Wan Azani Wan Mustafa
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    ;
    Dahham O.S.
    Glycerol is a co-product compound of biodiesel production that have an interesting heating value. In this study, biomass which is Kenaf plant was mixed with the Glycerol that act as a binder and additives to produce a pellet for energy. Kenaf plant was dried using Sherwood M501 air fluid bed dryer before pelletizing. Air fluid bed dryer is one of the fluidization drying process that have potential to be widely used. The motivation for this study was the material used contain the high value of water and the lower bulk density of pellet. The purpose of this study are to determine the characteristic of Glycerol-Kenaf pellet with a various test. This study will focused on the percentage of Glycerol used, the bulk density of pellet, durability of pellet and the calorific value of pellet. During fluidization process the best condition for the properties of pellet, the pellet which contain 40% Glycerol, 40% Epoxy has been produce a good density and durability. The 50% Glycerol, 30% Epoxy give a high calorific value than 40% Glycerol, 40% Epoxy. Glycerol can react as a binder and additives. Glycerol help to increase the calorific value of the biomass pellet.
  • Publication
    The influence of trans-polyoctylene rubber on the linear low-density polyethylene/acrylonitrile butadiene rubber/kenaf composites
    ( 2020-03-25)
    Othman N.S.
    ;
    Ragunathan Al Santiagoo
    ;
    Azhar A.S.
    ;
    Wan Azani Wan Mustafa
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    ;
    Dahham O.S.
    The fabrication of new thermoplastic elastomer composites made up from linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) and kenaf core (KC) were studied. The composites with and without trans-polyoctylene rubber (TOR) as compatibilizer was investigated. LLDPE/NBR/KC composite samples were prepared by using a heated two-roll mill at 130°C for 13 minutes. Then, the composite were moulded by using hot press machines at temperature of 130°C within 12 minutes. The ratio of composite investigated were 100/0/10, 80/20/10, 70/30/10, 60/40/10, 50/50/10 and 40/60/10 for both series. Meanwhile, the ratio of TOR was fixed at 10phr for composite with compatibilizer. The tensile strength, Young's modulus and elongation at break were recorded using INSTRON Universal Testing machine. The morphological properties of composites were also observed by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Meanwhile, the chemical composition of composite with and without TOR compatibilizer was investigated by using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). From the result obtained, the tensile strength and modulus were decreased with increasing of NBR loading while the elongation at break (Eb) was increased. The morphological examination indicated that the presence of TOR compatibilizers showed improvement in adhesion and better interfacial bonding between filler and matrix.
  • Publication
    Dielectric properties of Nephelium Lappaceum tropical wood
    ( 2020-03-25)
    Khor Shing Fhan
    ;
    Cheng Ee Meng
    ;
    Banjuraizah Johar
    ;
    Nashrul Fazli Mohd Nasir
    ;
    Zaizul M.A.
    ;
    Wan Azani Wan Mustafa
    ;
    Nik Noriman Zulkepli
    ;
    Dahham O.S.
    Dielectric properties of rambutan wood (Nephelium Lappaceum) were investigated in three anisotropic directions, namely miters-cut, cross-cut, and rib-cut. Dielectric constants and dielectric loss factors were measured at ambient temperatures by using an impedance analyzer. The dielectric constant decreased as frequency increased from 4 to 1 MHz. Among the wood specimens, the rib-cut direction has the lowest dielectric constant, while the cross-cut direction has the highest value. A dielectric dispersion occurred within frequencies 100 Hz to 10 kHz, which corresponding to a relaxation peak as observed on dielectric loss factor spectra. The relaxation peak value of the dielectric loss factors shifted towards higher frequencies in the sequence of rib-cut, miters-cut, and cross-cut specimen. Above 500 Hz, the cross-cut specimen has the highest value conductivity than others. Generally, these variations were subjected to the anatomical structure in the wood, such as parenchyma, ray cell, vessel cell, and fiber cell.