Caranan Fiber from Mauritiella armata Palm Tree as Novel Reinforcement for Epoxy Composites

Abstract

A growing environmental concern is increasing the search for new sustainable materials. In this scenario, natural lignocellulosic fibers (NLFs) became an important alternative to replace synthetic fibers commonly used as composites reinforcement. In this regard, unknown NLFs such as the caranan fiber (Mauritiella armata) found in South American rain forests revealed promising properties for engineering applications. Thus, for the first time, the present work conducted a technical characterization of caranan fiber-incorporated composites. Epoxy matrix composites with 10, 20 and 30 vol% of continuous and aligned caranan fibers were investigated by tensile tests, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Composites with more than 10% vol of caranan fibers significantly increase the elastic modulus and toughness in comparison to the neat epoxy. Indeed, the composite with 30 vol% was 50% stiffer, 130% tougher, and 100% stronger, which characterized an effective reinforcement. As for the elastic modulus, total strain and tensile toughness, there is a clear tendency of improvement with the amount of caranan fiber. The TGA disclosed the highest onset temperature of degradation (298 °C) with the least mass loss (36.8%) for the 30 vol% caranan fiber composite. It also displayed a higher degradation peak at 334 °C among the studied composites. The lowest glass transition temperature of 63 °C was obtained by DSC, while the highest of 113 °C by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) for the 30 vol% caranan composite. These basic technical findings emphasize the caranan fiber potential as reinforcement for polymer composites.

Physical and Mechanical Characterization of Titica Vine (Heteropsis flexuosa) Incorporated Epoxy Matrix Composites

“…However, these temperatures for all samples are slightly lower when compared to neat epoxy. These results corroborate previous studies in which natural fibers were used as epoxy matrix reinforcement [ 65 , 66 ]. Based on these results, a thermal stability limit of 296.3 °C can be established for untreated 40 vol% TVF composites and 268.8 °C for Na 2 CO 3 -treated 40 vol% TVF composites.…”

“…The DSC curve for untreated and treated TVF, shown in Figure 7 b, initially presents endothermic peaks between 70–80 °C that refer to moisture loss and TVF T g . The T g found for TVF in this work was very similar to natural fibers previously studied, such as carnauba (107 °C) [ 52 ], caranan (64 °C) [ 66 ], PALF (75 °C) [ 72 ] and jute (61 °C) [ 73 ]. Although these events are slightly different from those approached by TG, they fall within the same temperature range.…”

“…Figure 7 shows the DSC curves for the investigated materials. In particular, Figure 7 a reveals an endothermic peak at 63.5 °C, which is associated with glass transition (T g ) and a loss of moisture from the epoxy resin [ 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 ]. In addition, two exothermic events are noticeable.…”

Fire Resistance and Elevated Temperature in Reinforced Concrete Members: Research Needs for India

“…New concrete mixes and concepts are being developed across the world [41,42,44,[51][52][53][54] for meeting sustainable infrastructure demands or to attain novel properties, and few studies are reported for India as well [55][56][57]. This could even include fibre-reinforced concrete (both natural [58,59] and artificial: basalt nano-fibre [60]; steel fibre [56]), recycled aggregate concrete [61], and carbon nanotube reinforced concrete [62], among others. Fire and elevated temperature responses of these new materials, including thermal expansion, temperature profiles, deterioration, spalling, changes in strength and thermal properties with temperature, explosive spalling, post-event properties, etc., have been investigated internationally [63] but such data need to be carefully examined before such materials can be adopted for important infrastructure in India.…”

Effect of CNT-Based Resin Modification on the Mechanical Properties of Polymer Composites

“…To accomplish such a goal, it is necessary that the manufacturers be provided with a plethora of environmentally friendly materials to choose from as substitutes for their current choices. Researchers have been actively working toward the production of green composites by experimenting with resins and fibers obtained from nature, and by making use of naturally derived materials (Väisänen et al, 2017;Peças et al, 2018;Souza et al, 2020;Vinod et al, 2020;Yorseng et al, 2020). They have attempted to replace the conventional materials used for the matrix and reinforcement.…”