Effects of gamma radiation on sheep wool fiber composites reinforced with rice husk ash

Abstract

It is well known that animal fiber is one of the potential pollutants to the environment if not been well disposed. Besides animal fiber, rice husk ash has also been considered as a type of waste that are able to pollute the air and soil. Recently, there are plenty of research for the purpose of reusing this type of waste in the composite making. It has been established that irradiation on composite at dose of more than 3 kGy can potentially increase the properties of the composite as it becomes harder and able to hold huge loads. Therefore, this research is conducted to study the effect of irradiated composites of sheep wool fibers reinforced with rice husk ash. The composites were prepared with different percentage of sheep wool (3% and 5%) as well as the addition of rice husk ash as filler. The gamma irradiation of 7 kGy of dose is used on the composites and later analysed for the changes in the chemical and physical properties. New chemical bonds were observed for irradiated composites through Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Irradiated composite with 5% of wool has higher strength (0.16 MPa) compared to the irradiated composite with 3% of wool (0.09 MPa) from Izod fracture test. Meanwhile, composite without rice husk ash added were measured to have higher strength compared to the addition of rice husk ash as filler for both unirradiated and irradiated samples. The addition of rice husk ash increased the brittleness of the composite. In conclusion, the sheep wool fibers without the addition of rice hush ash are suitable to be used as reinforcing fibers in composites with gamma irradiation play insignificant part of the composite’s strength.