Plant-drive Waste Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites: Modification of Fiber Surface Treatment

Abstract

Plant fibers are being utilized more frequently to create polymer composite parts for the aerospace, construction, and automotive industries. The increased awareness of the toxicity of synthetic fibers is what has caused a rise in the use of plant fibers across a variety of industries. It is crucial to emphasize that "Earth needs humans, not humans need earth," hence decision-makers and researchers are working to replace conventional materials with eco-friendly ones. Plant fibers are environmentally friendly materials that have a number of advantages over synthetic materials, including simple manufacturing, a decrease in CO₂ emissions, the ability to be recycled and biodegraded, superior thermomechanical properties, and improved compatibility with human health. As a result, plant fibers are frequently utilized to modify polymers. In this study, plant-drive waste fiber (banana bunch fiber, BF) reinforced polypropylene composites were produced via compression molding. Some applications used stearic acid (SA) as a coupling agent, while others did not. Raw BF was utilized to make composites with four levels of filler loading: 10, 20, 30, and 40% weight percent. Testing was done on the mechanical characteristics of the resultant composites. Composites reinforced with 30% fiber, according to fiber loading, had the optimum combination of mechanical qualities. To increase its compatibility with the polymer matrix, SA was chemically added to improve BF. Banana bunch fiber reinforced composites that have undergone SA treatment had improved mechanical characteristics than the raw composites. Researchers were able to learn more about the fiber-matrix adhesion by using scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of the tensile broken samples, which demonstrated improved adhesion between BF and PP matrix following treatment with SA. The composites' capacity to soak up water and mimic weathering was also investigated