Studies on mulberry and areca palm leaf stalk fiber composite materials

Abstract

Composite materials are engineering materials made up of two or more constituent materials such as fibre and matrix The physical and chemical properties of fibre and matrix are significantly different from each other and when combined to produce the composite the properties are different from the individual constituents One or more discontinuous phase are combined with each other in the continuous phase to form a composite The reinforcement phases are called discontinuous phases such as fibres and particulates The matrix phase is called continuous phases such as metallic polymeric and ceramic The polymer either thermoplastic or thermoset resins are used as a matrix then it is called polymer matrix composites In this research the fibres were extracted from the mulberry plant and areca palm leaf stalks and treated with various concentration of alkali solution NaOH such as 5 10 and 15 and their physical chemical mechanical morphological and thermal properties were investigated experimentally newline