Abstract
The growing interest in natural lignocellulosic fibers (NLFs) is associated not only with environmental benefits but also with technical, economical and social advantages. Among the NLFs, the coir fiber and pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) are low-cost and widely available waste materials. The present work investigated the dynamic mechanical properties, by means of DMA tests, of these two different fibers as reinforcement of epoxy matrix composites. The influence on DMA properties of composites by the volume fraction and the configuration form, mat or aligned coir fiber, were also evaluated. The results showed higher E’ and E” moduli values and an increase in Tg with the incorporation of PALF in epoxy matrix, which indicate a superior dynamic mechanical properties for this composite in comparison to the neat epoxy resin. The experimental data also revealed a stronger interfacial interaction of PALF/epoxy when compared to coir fiber/epoxy. It was also found a lower tan δ value exhibited by higher volume fractions of aligned coir fibers in epoxy matrix.
Highlights
Due to an increasing environmental awareness, several studies have, in the past decades, been performed on natural lignocellulosic fibers (NLFs) as reinforcement of composites in substitution for synthetic fibers[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Among these NLFs, both the pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) and the coir fiber are extracted from leftover parts of corresponding plant and so considered as waste materials
For dynamic-mechanical analysis (DMA) samples were prepared with epoxy resin reinforced with two different natural lignocellulosic fibers
The pineapple leaf fibers (Ananas comosus), PALF for short, were supplied by Desigan Natural Fibers, Brazil, and the coir fibers extracted from the mesocarp of coconut (Cocos nuciferaL.) fruits were provided
Summary
Due to an increasing environmental awareness, several studies have, in the past decades, been performed on natural lignocellulosic fibers (NLFs) as reinforcement of composites in substitution for synthetic fibers[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Among these NLFs, both the pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) and the coir fiber are extracted from leftover parts of corresponding plant and so considered as waste materials. An additional aim of this work was to investigate how the volume fraction of coir fibers affects the dynamic mechanical properties of their epoxy composites
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