Study the effect of fiber loading and alkali treatment on the mechanical and water absorption properties of wheat straw fiber-reinforced epoxy composites

• Main Authors: Mittal Varun, Sinha Shishir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter 2017-09-01
• Series: Science and Engineering of Composite Materials
• Subjects: composites; epoxy resin; mechanical properties; water absorption; wheat straw
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/secm-2015-0441

The aim of this research was to study the feasibility of using wheat straw fiber with epoxy resin for developing natural fiber-polymer composites. For this purpose, the epoxy resin was reinforced with 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 wt.% of the wheat straw fiber with the help of the hand lay-up technique. Further, in order to improve the composite characteristic, wheat straw fibers were treated with three different concentrations of alkali (1%, 3%, and 5%). The mechanical and water absorption properties of the treated fiber composites were characterized and compared with those of untreated fiber-filled epoxy composites. It was observed that the mechanical properties and water resistance were reduced with the increase in wheat straw fiber loading from 5 to 25 wt.%. Among the three levels of alkali treatment, the composite made with 3% alkali-treated fiber exhibited superior mechanical properties than the other untreated and treated fiber composites, which pointed to an efficient fiber-matrix adhesion. The scanning electron microscope was used to observe the surface features of the wheat straw fiber.