Studies on borassus fruit fiber reinforced epoxy composites and their applications

Abstract

The utilization of natural fibers in composite laminates increases day by day because they are abundantly available, bio-degradable, inexpensive and eco-friendly in nature. The current green manufacturing motto is well met by the natural fiber based products. The interest in the industrial and the academic sector are now turned towards the natural fiber based products. The natural fiber reinforced with polymer matrix gains the advantage of light weight, better stiffness, high modulus and strength. In spite of these advantages, the natural fibers are having some limitations and they need to be overcome to make it competitive to the synthetic fibers. The objective of this research is to introduce new natural fibers as reinforcement in a polymer matrix and to develop light weight composite materials. Borassus fruit fiber (Borassus flabellifer) is one such kind which is lingo cellulosic and the fibers can be extracted easily with less energy consumption. The palm trees bearing Borassus fruits are available all over the world, especially in India. In this work, Borassus fruit fibers were extracted using the retting process. The fibers were alkali treated with three different NaOH concentrations and the effects of them on physical, chemical and mechanical properties of Borassus fruit fibers were found experimentally. The surface morphology and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis were made on the raw and alkali treated fibers. The best alkali treatment percentage was identified based on the results. The raw and alkali treated fibers were chopped into five different lengths of 1 mm, 3 mm, 5 mm, 7 mm and 10 mm respectively. The resin was prepared with a mixture of epoxy and hardener at a weight ratio of 10:1. Epoxy resin and chopped Borassus fruit fibers were mixed with the weight ratio of 65:35 and the composites were manufactured using hand layup and compression moulding technique. The specimens were prepared according to the ASTM standards.