Improvement of Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Composite Reinforced with Chemically Treated Ladies Finger Natural Fiber

ABSTRACT

In the present work, ladies finger (LF) fiber has been utilized as reinforcement in thermoplastic polymer, polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The extracted fibers were chemically treated, and the effect of chemical treatment of fibers on mechanical and thermal properties of composites was investigated and discussed. For this purpose, the fibers were treated with chemicals like sodium hydroxide at various concentrations (2%, 3%, 4%, and 5%). Then, the chemically treated fibers with varying weight percentage (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 wt%) were reinforced in PET to develop new composites, and its various properties like mechanical properties, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction were thoroughly investigated and compared with untreated fiber composites and neat PET. It has been observed that the composites fabricated with treated LF fibers reveal improved properties as compared to composites containing untreated fibers. Moreover, a better fiber–matrix bonding is also observed in scanning electron microscopy images.  Twentywt% of fiber loading reveals highest mechanical properties as compared to other fabricated composites and can be suitable for packaging applications.

摘要

在当前的工作中，女士手指纤维（LF）已被用作热塑性聚合物聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）的增强材料. 对提取的纤维进行化学处理，并研究和讨论了化学处理对复合材料的机械和热学性能的影响. 为此目的，用诸如氢氧化钠之类的化学药品以各种浓度（2％，3％，4％和5％）处理纤维. 然后将化学处理后的纤维（0、10、20、30、40wt%）在PET中增强，制备出新的复合材料，并对其力学性能、热重分析（TGA）等性能进行了研究，采用傅立叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和X射线衍射（XRD）对纤维复合材料进行了研究，并与未经处理的纤维复合材料和纯PET进行了比较. 研究发现，与未经处理的纤维相比，经处理的LF纤维制备的复合材料具有更好的性能. 此外，在扫描电子显微镜（SEM）图像中也观察到了更好的纤维-基体结合. 与其他制造的复合材料相比，20 wt%的纤维负载显示出最高的机械性能，可适用于包装应用.

KEYWORDS: 关键词:

• Ladies finger fiber: 女士手指纤维
• polyethylene terephthalate (PET): 聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯（PET）
• thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA): 热重分析（TGA）
• Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR): 傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）
• scanning electron microscopy (SEM) 扫描电子显微镜（SEM）

KEYWORDS:

• Ladies finger fiber
• polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
• thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA)
• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
• scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge LARPM, Bhubaneswar, India, for allowing us to carry out all the experimental works.

Disclosure statement

None.