Water Absorption and Density Tests on the Water Hyacinth-Based Partial Green Composite

摘要

At present, natural composites have received a wide range of attention from the researchers due to the fact that fossil fuel resources are depleting rapidly, increase in global warming, and concern on environmental pollution. The development of the green composites is also increased for the fact that the properties of these are very similar to synthetic composites. Water hyacinth plant is an aquatic plant which causes several devastating problems to the ecosystem in which it grows. Removing this plant is a huge cost and time-consuming process, and this is not a permanent solution as it grows in a very short span. Utilizing such type of plants to prepare composite materials will be beneficial to society. In this paper, the water hyacinth (WH) plant is dried and powdered to manufacture a partial green composite. The water hyacinth powder is mixed with epoxy to prepare a partial green particulate composite. Experimental investigation of the density changes, mass savings, and water absorption behavior of the WH powder-based composite was performed, and its behavior has been presented in the current paper. Comparisons were made between the density and water absorption behavior of the normal epoxy with the WH powder-infused epoxy.