Effect of chemical treatments on properties of injection molded Nypa fruticans fiber reinforced polypropylene composite

The rise in environmental awareness prompted consideration of environment friendly materials. Natural fiber, on the contrary, has a structure that allows it to absorb moisture attributable to its hydrophilicity, which hinders its wide application and leads to poor interfacial bonding with the polymer matrix. Therefore, fiber surface modification is inevitable, which is usually based on using the functional group of some chemicals to replace the hydrophilic hydroxyl group to make it more moisture resistant and ameliorate the boding between fiber and polymer matrix. In this study, injection molded nypa fiber reinforced polypropylene composites were fabricated. Three different chemical modification i.e., mercerization, H2O2 treatment, maleic anhydride polypropylene (MAPP) compatibilizer, were employed. Other parameters on which the properties of the composite depend, i.e., fiber volume (30%), manufacturing process, etc. were kept the same. Field emission scanning electron microscopic (FE-SEM) images were also investigated to verify the result of experiments. Moisture resistance of the composite was also evaluated. The tensile and flexural properties of treated composite were significantly enhanced than the untreated one. The maximum strength was obtained for MAPP treated composite. The chemical treatment has a less impact on the impact strength of the composite. Better moisture resistance was observed for treated fiber composites. This study provides the insight of using chemical treatment for better adhesion between the fiber and the polymer

Investigation of mechanical properties of rattan and bamboo fiber reinforced vinyl ester composite material for automotive application

In scope of this research, manufacturing and mechanical characterization of rattan and bamboo fiber reinforced vinyl ester composite material were carried out. Bamboo and rattan fiber was extracted by using retting process followed by chemical treatment to enhance mechanical properties. The composite was manufactured using bidirectional fiber mat in vacuum bag molding and hand layup process. The weight fraction between reinforcement and matrix was 24% and 76% respectively. Three types of composites were manufactured; Bamboo Fiber Composite (BFC), Rattan Fiber Composite (RFC), and Rattan (12%) and Bamboo (12%) Fiber Composite (RBFC). Different mechanical behavior of the composite was investigated, such as tensile strength, flexural strength, hardness, and impact strength. The maximum flexural and impact strength was found for RBFC with 57.66 MPa and 44.49 kJ/m2, respectively. It was found that about 29% and 17% of flexural strength and 29% and 78% of impact strength was improved for RBFC than BFC and RFC respectively. Finally, fabricated composites mechanical characteristics were compared to the Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene or ABS plastic materials mechanical characteristics