Effects of inorganic materials on the waste chicken feather fiber reinforced unsaturated polyester resin-based composite: An approach to environmental sustainability

Abstract

The environmentally hazardous waste of the poultry industry was eliminated by recycling the chicken feather fibers (CFF) with metal oxides to make useful composites by mixing them with unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) by hand lay-up process. The availability of CFF as waste and its reinforcement property is used to prepare cost-effective products which eventually cause less environmental pollution. Different compounds such as ZnO, CaCO3, and Al2O3 were added to the matrix for the enhancement of the mechanical properties of the composites. The treated chicken feather fiber-based composites with ZnO and UPR revealed relatively good properties (tensile strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM), percentage elongation at break (EB), bending strength (BS), and bending modulus (BM)) compared to the other composites. For optimal composite, increases of TS, TM, BS, and BM are 69.78%, 34.19%, 56.75%, and 40%, respectively than the control sample UPR polymer composites. The water uptake properties were measured for composites for up to 15 days to determine the water absorption behavior. For the functional group analysis, FT-IR was carried out. For the fiber matrix adhesion analysis, the scanning electron microscopic image was analyzed. Good fiber matrix adhesion is found. For knowing the stability temperature of composites Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) up to 600 °C was observed. Degradation was carried out for 90 days to find out composite decay in four steps such as compost degradation, soil degradation, brine degradation, and weather degradation. The addition of waste materials greatly improved the properties of composite materials.