Effect of alkali treatment on the thermal properties of wheat straw fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Abstract

This paper focuses on the study of the effect of fiber content and alkali treatment on the thermal properties of wheat straw epoxy composite. Four levels of fiber loading (10, 20, 30, and 40 wt%) of wheat straw and three levels of alkali treatment (1, 3, and 5%) were considered and merged into epoxy composites. The composites were prepared by hand layup technique. The thermal stability of the components was studied by thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry, as well as by the differential thermogravimetric. The experimental results show that the thermal stability of the composites prepared from 3% alkali-treated fibers is superior as compared to the untreated and another level of alkali-treated fiber composite. This is mainly due to the efficient fiber–matrix adhesion in the alkali-treated wheat straw epoxy composites. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) studies were carried out to evaluate the microstructure and composition of wheat straw fiber/epoxy composites, respectively.