Development and study of properties of Moringa oleifera fruit fibers/ polyethylene terephthalate composites for packaging applications

Abstract

Abstract Researchers are now focusing on the use of natural fiber polymer composites materials for packaging applications. It has been proposed that Moringa oleifera fruit fiber (MOF) as reinforcement can be a promising candidate for packaging applications. So in this current research, composites were fabricated by reinforcing treated moringa oleifera fruit fibers with Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) thermoplastic polymer. Its mechanical, thermal and morphological properties were investigated. Surface treatments of fibers have been carried out to have a better compatibility with PET matrix. The mechanical properties have been found to increase at the early stage with the increase in treated moringa oleifera fiber content till optimum (20 wt% of fiber) fiber loading thereafter declines. At this fiber loading the mechanical properties obtained were 65.92 MPa of tensile strength, 98.49 MPa of flexural strength, 3.78 GPa of young’s modulus and 28.09 kJ/m2 of impact strength. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been used for analysis. The TGA inferred that the thermal stability of the composites increased as compared to neat PET matrix. It was found that composites fabricated from 20 wt% fiber content shows superior mechanical properties as well as thermal properties as compared with other fabricated composites and can be used for packaging applications.