Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Chloris barbata flower fiber /Epoxy Composites: Effect of Alkali treatment and Fiber weight fraction

ABSTRACT

Untreated and alkali-treated (5% NaOH) Chloris barbata flower fibers (CBFFs) were used to fabricate the composites by hand lay-up method. Novel composite plates were manufactured by changing fiber weight fraction (5 wt.%, 10 wt.%, 15 wt.%, 20 wt.%, and 25 wt.%), raw and 5% NaOH treated fibers. The impact of NaOH treatment and fiber weight fraction on tensile, flexural, impact, morphological, and thermal properties of CBFF reinforced epoxy composites were examined and reported for the first time in this article. The tensile, flexural, and impact properties of the composites were increased up to 20 wt. % fiber additions and after that dropped. After the tensile testing, broken cross-sections of the composites were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which showed that NaOH treated CBFF reinforced composite has better interfacial bonding and lesser voids. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared analysis (FTIR), and Atomic force microscope (AFM) analysis of composites also pointed out that alkali-treated CBFF is a suitable material for reinforcement with the epoxy polymer matrix.

摘要

以未经处理和碱处理的（5%NaOH）氯代巴巴多斯花纤维（CBFFs）为原料，采用手糊法制备了复合材料. 通过改变纤维质量分数（5%、10%、15%、20%和25%）以及未加工和5%氢氧化钠处理的纤维，制备了新型复合板. 本文首次研究了NaOH处理和纤维质量分数对CBFF增强环氧复合材料拉伸、弯曲、冲击、形态和热性能的影响. 纤维添加量达到20wt%时，复合材料的拉伸性能、弯曲性能和冲击性能都得到了提高，然后下降. 拉伸试验后，用扫描电镜（SEM）分析了复合材料的断裂截面，结果表明，NaOH处理的CBFF增强复合材料具有较好的界面结合性能和较小的空隙率. 复合材料的热重分析（TGA）、傅立叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和原子力显微镜（AFM）分析表明，碱处理CBFF是一种适合环氧树脂基体增强的材料.

KEYWORDS:

• Chloris barbata flower (CBF)
• alkali-treatment
• mechanical properties
• FT-IR analysis
• interfacial bonding
• surface topography

关键词:

• 半枝莲花（CBF）
• 碱处理
• 机械性能
• 红外光谱分析
• 界面粘结
• 表面形貌

Additional information

Funding

The Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has funded this project under grant no. (FP-96-42).