Assessment of Impact Energy, Wear Behavior, Thermal Resistance and Water Absorption Properties of Hybrid Bagasse Fiber/CaCO₃ Reinforced Polypropylene Composites

Abstract

To harness the inherent advantages of both synthetic and natural reinforcements, mercerized bagasse fibers (BF) and particulate calcium carbonate (CaCO3) were utilized as a complementing reinforcement for the fabrication of bagasse fiber/calcium carbonate (BF/CaCO3) polypropylene composites. Two sets of composites were produced – one with mercerized BF/CaCO3 and the other with unmercerized BF/ CaCO3. The effect of reinforcement loading on the impact energy, wear behavior, thermal resistance and water absorption properties of the composites were studied. Results showed that the mercerized BF/CaCO3 hybrid reinforced polypropylene composites exhibited significant increase in impact energy and offered better resistance to weight loss during wear test. Similarly, the thermal resistance of the mercerized composites was higher than their corresponding unmercerized composites. Additionally, water absorption in mercerized composites was highly resisted than in unmercerized samples. These results indicated that mercerization treatment and reinforcement hybridization improved the impact energy, wear, thermal resistance and water ingress resistance of hybrid fiber/ particulate reinforced polypropylene composites.