Mechanical, Chemical and Morphological Analysis of Crab shell/Sisal Natural Fiber Hybrid Composites

Natural fiber-reinforced hybrid composites find wide applications in recent decades owing to its biodegradability, low density, and low-cost benefits. The work reported investigates, the effect of adding crab shell particles over sisal-reinforced epoxy hybrid composites in different weight percentages such as 0 wt.%, 2 wt.%, 4 wt.%, and 6 wt.%. Mechanical properties, morphological characters, X-ray diffraction analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were carried out for prepared hybrid composites. The inclusion of up to four weight percentage of crab shell particles exhibited considerable improvements in tensile (50%) and flexural strength (38%) in contrast to other combinations. Addition of more than 4 wt. % of crab shell particles in the polymer composites showed decreasing properties, due to the agglomeration effect between fiber and matrix. This clearly showed that the inclusion of crab shell particles into the polymer matrix considerably improves the flexural and tensile strength of hybrid composites. Morphological behavior of fractured surface confirmed the existence of better bonding between the fiber and matrix. Functional groups of sisal fiber and crab shell particles were identified using FTIR. The crystallinity index (CI) and crystallinity percentage of sisal fiber and crab shell particles are 0.43, 0.44 and 63.76%, 63.95%, respectively

Green synthesis, characterization, antibacterial, and antifungal activity of copper oxide nanoparticles derived from Morinda citrifolia leaf extract

Abstract The green methodologies of nanoparticles with plant extracts have received an increase of interest. Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) have been utilized in a many of applications in the last few decades. The current study presents the synthesis of CuO NPs with aqueous extract of Morinda citrifolia as a stabilizing agent. The leaf extract of Morinda citrifolia was mixed with a solution of copper sulphate (CuSO4·5H2O) and sodium hydroxide as a catalyst. UV–visible spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM, and EDAX analysis were performed to study the synthesized CuO NPs. Particle size distribution of the synthesized CuO NPs have been measured with dynamic light scattering. The CuO NPs synthesized were highly stable, sphere-like, and have size of particles from 20 to 50 nm. Furthermore, as-formed CuO NPs shown strong antibacterial activity against the Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus), and Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli). CuO NPs revealed a similar trend was analysed for antifungal activity. The zone of inhibition for the fungi evaluated for Aspergillus flavus (13.0 ± 1.1), Aspergillus niger (14.3 ± 0.7), and Penicillium frequentans (16.8 ± 1.4). According to the results of this investigation, green synthesized CuO NPs with Morinda citrifolia leaf extract may be used in biomedicine as a replacement agent for biological applications