Experimental Investigation on the Mechanical, Thermal, and Morphological Behaviour of Prosopis juliflora Bark Reinforced Epoxy Polymer Composite

• Published in: Journal of natural fibers Vol. 19; no. 14; pp. 8593 - 8603
• Main Authors: Jena, Pradeep Kumar, Samal, Priyaranjan, Nayak, Subhakanta, Behera, Jyoti Ranjan, Khuntia, Sujit Kumar, Mohapatra, Jagannath, Mohanty, Saumya Darsan, Malla, Chandrabhanu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 28-10-2022; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Bark; Chemical treatment; Composite materials; Electron microscopes; Epoxy resins; Failure analysis; Fiber composites; Fiber reinforced polymers; Fibers; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR); Fracture surfaces; Hand lay-up; Impact strength; Mechanical properties; Modulus of elasticity; Polymer matrix composites; Polymers; Prosopis; Prosopis juliflora bark; Scanning electron microscopy; scanning electron microscopy (SEM); surface modification; Tensile strength; Thermal properties; Thermodynamic properties; thermogravimetry analysis (TGA); 傅里叶变换红外光谱; 力学性能; 扫描电子显微镜; 朱丽叶原皮; 热重分析 (TGA); 表面改性
• ISSN: 1544-0478; 1544-046X
• DOI: 10.1080/15440478.2021.1964144

Currently more emphasis is given to plants originated fibers for many applications due to their potential use in solving emerging problems concerning the environment. This research is based on evaluation of fiber concentration and treatment on physical, mechanical and thermal properties of untreated and treated Prosopis Juliflora (PJ) bark fiber reinforced epoxy composites. Composites were fabricated with varying weight % (i.e 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%) of untreated and treated PJ bark fibers in epoxy resin using hand lay-up method. From the results obtained, it is obvious that the mechanical and thermal properties of composites reinforced with chemically treated fibers were enhanced due to fiber surface modification which helps in better bonding with matrix. Moreover, the composites with 20wt% fiber concentration shows good tensile strength, young's modulus, impact strength and was found to be 84.22MPa, 3.94 GPa, 31.76 KJ/m
2
and 59.18 MPa respectively. Finally, the failure analysis of fracture surface due to delimitation, pull-out of the fibers, percentage of voids and composite fracture has been verified using scanning electron microscope.