Effect of particle size on physical, thermal and mechanical behaviour of epoxy composites reinforced with food waste fillers

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the influence of food waste (citrus limetta peel) filler size on the thermal and mechanical behaviour of epoxy resin based composites. The present research work was undertaken with three different categories of fillers i.e. (i) (100–250) µm and ii) (350–500) µm and iii) (650–800) µm in 15 wt.%. The epoxy resin modified with citrus limetta peel (CLP) fillers was exposed to water soaking for diverse time durations of 24 hrs, 48 hrs, 72 hrs, 96 hrs and 120 hrs. Mechanical and thermal properties of modified epoxy resin have been evaluated. A morphological analysis of the fractured surfaces of different composite specimens was also performed. The results revealed that the composites having coarse CLP fillers showed maximum water absorption. The mechanical characterization results revealed that the tensile and flexural strength were reduced in comparison to neat epoxy (NE). The impact strength of the developed composites increased for fine CLP fillers based composites. Overall, it was established that there is a significant effect of variation in filler size on developed composites and composites with fine CLP fillers gave best results compared to medium and coarse fillers based composites.