Effect of alkali treatment and nano filler addition on properties of palm/glass fiber reinforced polymer composite

Abstract

Usage of natural fiber as reinforcements with polymer resins increases the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the fabricated composites. Composites developed from natural hybrid fiber have more advantage than composites developed from individual fibers. This may be due to the limitation of one fiber which is replaced by the advantage of other. In the proposed work hybrid palm/glass fibers with coconut shell nano filer have been used as reinforcements and its effects on mechanical properties were studied. The mechanical properties (hardness, tensile, flexural, impact strengths), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analyses are investigated. Composites containing hybrid fibers found to posses better mechanical properties when compared to pure palm fibers. The morphological analysis namely scanning electron microscope (SEM) is also performed. All the results indicate that introduction of natural filler added hybrid palm/glass fiber reduces the overall cost of the composites with no compromise in strength enabling green technologies.