Experimental investigation on the behavior of epoxy/peepal composites fortified with silica and silicon carbide nanoparticles for industrial applications

ABSTRACT

Natural composites play a crucial role in industries due to low density, environment friendly and low cost. However, the performance is limited compared to conventional materials. Hence, it is necessary to perform research on the improvement of the strength of natural composites. Peepal fiber is one of the natural fibers noticed by a limited number of researchers. Hence, an attempt has been made to reveal new scientific information of peepal fiber-based composites. In this research, the natural composite was made using peepal fiber and epoxy resin by the hand layup process. Further, nanofillers like silica (SiO₂) and silicon carbide (SiC) were used as reinforcing agents. Both reinforcements were added with the epoxy/peepal (70:30) composite as fixed quantity (2 wt%) for comparison purposes. The performance of composites was assessed concerning the reinforcement type. Materials such as epoxy/peepal, epoxy/peepal/2 wt% SiO₂, epoxy/peepal/2 wt% SiC and epoxy/peepal/1 wt% SiO₂/1 wt% SiC were fabricated. Investigation on mechanical, thermal in addition to water intake characteristics was made. Epoxy/peepal/2 wt% SiO₂ composite exhibited maximum tensile, flexural, impact and hardness of 88, 72 MPa, 9.5 kJ/m² and 77 shore-d respectively. Further, the same composite showed the least thermal conductivity and low water absorption.

KEYWORDS:

• Natural composite
• natural fiber
• silica
• silicon carbide

Acknowledgements

S. Vignesh: Conducted research, manuscript preparation. J. Bensam Raj: Plotting graphs, manuscript preparation. K. Viswanath: Software handling, manuscript preparation. N. Natarajan: Materials collection, manuscript preparation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

This material is the authors’ own original work, which has not been previously published elsewhere. The paper is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. All authors have been personally and actively involved in substantial work leading to the paper, and will take public responsibility for its content.