Preparation and characterization of natural fibres reinforced polymer composites

Abstract

The ever-increasing quantities of trash produced by the poultry and tannery industries, particularly chicken feathers, cow hairs, and waste leather fibers, pose serious challenges to maintaining a pristine natural environment. Throwing away used chicken feathers is not only wasteful, but also harmful to the environment. However, rising demand for the synthetic polymer is also a major roadblock on the path to sustainability. Polluting the environment and making life more difficult, synthetic polymers are mostly to blame. Waste management and reducing the use of nonbiodegradable polymers pose serious obstacles to achieving a clean and sustainable environment. By combining recycled chicken feather fibers (CFF), cow hair fibers (CHF), and leather fibers (LF) with inorganic materials and unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) through a hand lay-up process, this study successfully reduced environmentally hazardous waste from the poultry and tannery industries. The mechanical characteristics of the matrix were improved by including waste fibers at various weight percentages (2, 5, 7, 10, 12, and 15% by weight). These fibers' availability as waste and their reinforcing quality allowed for their usage in the production of low-priced items that reduced pollution to the environment. To improve the composites' mechanical characteristics, many other chemicals, including ZnO, CaCO3, and Al2O3, were included into the matrix. The treated chicken feather fiber-based composites gave the better results than that of untreated fiber based composites. When inorganic materials were added as filler in UPR, the prepared composites revealed better results than the neat composites. The composites showed the best overall mechanical properties in the tensile strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM), bending strength (BS) and bending modulus (BM) when 5% of chicken feather and cow hair mixed fiber was used and ZnO was added as filler compared to the other composites. The highest enhancements of TS, TM, BS, and BM were 94%, 159%, 215%, and 528% respectively for optimized composites than those of the control sample UPR. Again, for optimal composite, increments of TS, TM, BS and BM were 3%, 0.68% and 1.95% and 0.16% than those of CFF based composite, 7%, 20%, 2.77% and 0.80% than those of CHF based composite and 39.74%, 11.65%, 27% and 52% than those of LF based composite. FTIR and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) provided strong support for mechanical rather than chemical connection between fiber and UPR. The helical structure of the composites disintegrated in thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), losing its chain-linkage skeleton and peptide fiber bridges, dissolving keratin and collagen into carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulphide (H2S), and hydrogen cyanide (HCN). The results of water uptake and thickness swelling study for up to 15 days showed good mechanical properties even for potential applications in a humid environment of animal fiber reinforced composites. Degradation values in five media, including compost, soil, brine, and weather for 90 days, suggest that the composites have potential in a variety of settings. The characteristics of composites were considerably enhanced by the use of waste materials. In comparison to chemically treated fiber based composites, gamma modified fiber exhibited superior tensile characteristics. Images of the fiber and fracture surfaces within the composites were taken in order to analyze the mode of failure and learn more about the interfacial adhesion between the fiber and matrix.