Characterization of Thermo-mechanical and Morphological Properties of Jute Fabric Reinforced Epoxy/AESO Bio-composites

Abstract

In this study, the effect of curing applied to jute woven fabric (four-layers) reinforced composite materials in which different proportions of acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO) and epoxy resin are used as matrix material, on the thermal, thermo-mechanical and morphological properties of the composite materials are investigated. Composite material production is carried out by vacuum infusion method, whereas curing at 90 °C is done during production and post-curing at 120 °C is performed using a conditioning oven after production. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) results show that the storage and loss modulus values of composite materials increase with increasing AESO ratio, while tan delta curves display that the bonds between the fiber and matrix of hybrid samples are stronger than composite materials using a single type of resin. This result is also supported by scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. The effect of curing (90 °C) and post-curing (120 °C) temperatures on the thermo-mechanical properties of the composite material is more clearly seen in epoxy composite samples whose glass transition temperature is higher than the room temperature. Besides, the decrease in glass transition temperature of the material with the increase in AESO content is obtained from both DMA and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) plots.

Properties of basalt/aramid fiber reinforced hybrid composites compared to carbon fiber composites

“…This indicates the fact that natural fibers have different chemical bonding characteristics than synthetic fibers and they do not form a good bond with the matrix. [ 50 ] In this case, one of the reasons for the B8A4 sample having significantly less tensile strength than the C9 sample can be expressed by the bonding characteristics of the fibers. In Figure 5E,F, the structure of the A4B8 hybrid composite material is presented.…”

Post curing temperature effect on mechanical characterization of jute/basalt fiber reinforced hybrid composites

“…By the time the JE structures in Figure 15 are checked against the JE structures in Figure 9 and Figure 12, it was found that the gaps between the matrix resin and the fibers increased. This can be expressed by the fact that natural fibers and matrix structures have different chemical structures and do not form a good bond between them [30]. In the comparison of BE structures in Figure 13 and Figure 16, it was seen that the resin did not completely cover the matrix in BE structures that were post-cured at 90 °C, indicating that there was not as much bonding between the matrix and the resin as in BE structures that were post-cured at 70 °C.…”

“…The impact strength, on the other hand, had the highest value when the post curing temperature was at 80°C, while its increase from this temperature negatively affected the impact strength. It has also been found that the post-curing process improves the ratio of the material's loss modulus to the storage modulus, resulting in the development of the fiber matrix interface [30]. The effects of various operating temperatures during production were investigated, although the effects of different curing temperatures have been discussed in previous studies, it was found that the study on the effects of post-curing on tensile strength, hardness, and water absorption values of Jute and Basalt fibers and their hybrid composites is lacking in the literature.…”