Effect of Natural Crosslinker on the Properties of Chicken Feather and Modified Vegetable Oil Based Green Composites

Abstract

ABSTRACT For the past few decades environmental concerns had been influencing the researchers to employ natural fibers and polymers from renewable resources as a replacement for petroleum-based resins and synthetic fibers. In this work, materials from renewable resources were used to prepare the composites. Modified epoxidised soybean oil as resin was employed to prepare the composites with chicken feather fibers as the reinforcing agent by compression molding technique. Epoxidised soybean oil (ESO) was modified by reacting with methacrylic acid and methacrylic anhydride to form resin. Rosin acid derivative was synthesized to serve as the crosslinker for replacement of the petroleum based divinylbenzene (DVB). For comparison, divinylbenzene (DVB) was also employed to copolymerize with the same resin. Chemical structure of rosin derivative was verified by 1H-NMR spectroscopy. FT-IR study showed the interaction between resin, chicken feather fiber (CFF) and rosin derivatives. The morphological features of the composites were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), where it indicated a uniform interaction among the components of the composites. Different experimental results showed that the composites with higher amount of rosin acid derivative showed better properties. Results demonstrated that rosin acid derivative can serve as a substitute for petroleum-based rigid compounds for preparing biocomposites.