Improvement of Mechanical Properties by Alkali Treatment on Pineapple and Jute Fabric Reinforced Polyester Resin Composites

摘要

In this work, two bio-composites, i.e. jute and pineapple fabric reinforced polyester resin composites were manufactured. The influence of alkali treatment on the mechanical properties i.e. tensile strength, elongation at break and young's modulus of composites were investigated after treating the jute and pineapple fabrics with various concentrations of NaOH 3, 5 and 7(w/v)% for 1 hour at 80°C. All test specimens were prepared as per ASTM standard. All the tensile properties i.e. tensile strength, elongation at break and young's modulus of alkali treated fabric composites are improved compared to the untreated fabric composites and it is also found that, they increased with the increasing of NaOH concentration. In concentration of 7 (w/v) % NaOH, both the jute and pineapple fabric composites showed highest mechanical properties value compared to the other concentration. It showed that, tensile strength, elongation at break and young's modulus were increased 48.69%, 87.5% and 62.94% respectively for jute fabric composite and 37.41%, 79.34% and 119.9% for pineapple fabric composites in concentration of 7 (w/v) % NaOH. Many researchers already have worked on alkali treatment on natural composites but still nobody has worked on fabric as a natural reinforcing material. In this work, we used pineapple and jute fabric as reinforcing material with polyester resin and results are better for fabric in compared to fiber reinforcing composites.