Characterization of Alkaline and Silane Treated Fibers of ‘Water Hyacinth Plants’ and Reinforcement of ‘Water Hyacinth Fibers’ with Bioepoxy to Develop Fully Biobased Sustainable Ecofriendly Composites

Abstract

Currently, bio-thermoplastic polymers are widely used as matrix reinforced with different kinds of natural fibers, because these bio-polymer are biodegradable, eco-friendly and nontoxic. Moreover, the natural fibers are one of the sustainable material for making composites for lightweight materials, which can deplete the use of man-made synthetic materials and reduce greenhouse effect. In this view, the use of waste bio-fiber as a reinforcement material in biobased composites for ecofriendly semi-structural applications. This research studied the extraction and characterization of waste fibers from water hyacinth plants and also fabrication of bioepoxy based ecofriendly composites from chemically treated water hyacinth fibers (WHFs). As far as we know, no work on this concept has been published so far. Water hyacinth is as an invasive and free-floating perennial aquatic plant known as Eichhornia crassipes. Firstly, raw and chemically treated water hyacinth fibers were characterized by various techniques such as chemical analysis, XRD, FTIR, TGA, DTG, SEM and AFM. The raw, NaOH and silane treated WHFs reinforced bioepoxy based composites are manufactured by casting method. Then, tensile, flexural, impact, hardness, thermal, dynamic, and surface morphology tests were carried out on composite specimens. This study confirmed that the WHFs can be used as a reinforcement material with bioepoxy polymer to develop fully biobased ecofriendly composites for production of lightweight structures.