Investigations on jute fibre-reinforced polyester composites: Effect of alkali treatment and poly(lactic acid) coating

Abstract

The aim of the present investigation is to overcome the limitations of jute fibre-reinforced polyester composite. The jute fibre-reinforced polyester composites were prepared by hand lay-up technique followed by static compression using constant fibres length 15 mm and constant fibres loading 16 wt.%. In the present work, treated jute fibres consisted of alkali treated, poly(lactic acid)-coated and alkali-treated coated with poly(lactic acid). Mechanical properties in terms of tensile, flexural and impact test, and dynamic mechanical properties in terms of storage modulus [Formula: see text], loss modulus [Formula: see text], damping [Formula: see text] and glass transition temperature [Formula: see text]of prepared composites were studied. In addition, water absorption properties in terms of percentage of water uptake and sorption, diffusion and permeability coefficient were also studied. In addition, morphological analysis of untreated and treated jute fibres and its polyester based composites was also carried out using scanning electron microscope. The results suggested that the limitations of jute fibre-reinforced polyester composites were significantly reduced after the treatment of fibres. The composite with alkali-treated jute fibres coated with poly(lactic acid) exhibited the best performance in terms of improvement in mechanical, dynamic mechanical and water resistance properties. The results obtained from present study show a successful attempt of a novel treatment.

Development and characterization of jute composites for sustainable product: effect of chemical treatments and polymer coating

“…flexural strength and flexural modulus) obtained from flexural load v/s extension graph (figure 6) for pure and modified jute composites are presented in figure 7. Flexural results of the present composite was seen close to those of reported in the earlier published works [27,28,30]. In case of flexural analysis, a similar trend like tensile test result was observed.…”

“…tensile strength and tensile modulus) obtained from tensile load v/s displacement diagram (figure 3) for pure and modified jute composites are presented in figure 4. Tensile properties of the present composite was found close to those of reported in the previous published works [27,29,30]. A positive effect of surface modifications by treatments (alkali, benzoyl chloride and sodium bicarbonate treatment) with PLA of jute fibres were observed in terms of enhancement in tensile properties of its composite.…”

“…Further, alkali treated with PLA coating composite S(T2) has 11% and 22% higher values of tensile strength and modulus as compared to untreated composite S(T0). This could be due to removal of impurities by alkali treatment leads to strong bonding between fibres and epoxy resin thereby improvement in tensile properties [27]. Among all the composites, the maximum values of tensile strength (33.45 MPa) and tensile modulus (5.34 GPa) were found for the composite S(T3) which was 21% and 33% more than that of untreated composite S(T0).…”

“…In the glassy region, increase in values of storage moduli followed the order S(T3)>S(T2)>S(T1)>S(T0). In transition region, the storage modulus of the composites was found to be decreased rapidly as the temperature increased, probably due to the loss in stiffness of the jute fibres at evaluated temperature [8,27]. In the rubbery region, above to 90°C storage modulus of the composites were saturated because at very high temperature treatment and coating could not control the stiffness of the composites.…”

“…Mechanical and morphological properties of coir fibres [23] and mechanical and thermal properties of sugar palm fibre were also improved by sodium bicarbonate treatment [24]. In recent few years, the researchers have used polymer coating on the surface of natural fibres to enhance its performances as well as its composite's also; sisal fibres [25], sisal/polyester [26], jute/polyester [27] and jute/vinyl ester [28]. Now, it can be concluded that the limitations of the natural fibres were found to be significantly overcome resulting in enhanced properties by the various surface modification methods.…”