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

Abstract

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