Effects of chemical modifications and MMT nanoclay addition on transport phenomena of naturally woven coconut sheath/polyester nanocomposites

Abstract

Studies on the behavior of molecular transport properties such as thermal conductivity, gas permeability, volume and surface resistivity have been carried out for the naturally woven coconut sheath (CS) fiber reinforced composites with the addition of nanoclay and chemical treatment of fiber. The compression molding technique was used to fabricate the coconut sheath/clay reinforced hybrid composites. The morphological studies such as X-ray diffractogram (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been carried out for polyester nanocomposites and coconut sheath fiber. The decreased gas permeability, thermal conductivity and volume and surface resistivity have been observed with increasing the weight percentage of nanoclay in polyester matrix. In chemical modifications, the alkali and silane treated coconut sheath reinforced composites have shown great influence on the transport properties due to the increasing hydrophilic nature by the topographical changes at the fiber surface. Dielectric strength has also been reported in this paper for all types of composites. Infra-red (IR) spectra have also been taken to study the physical and chemical structural changes of treated coconut sheath.