Experimental investigation on mechanical properties of alkali treated jute fibre reinforced sodium alginate composites

Abstract

Plant fibre composite from renewable resources have emerged as one of the growing field in the engineering sectors. The present work investigating the effect of various concentration(1.5, 2 and 2.5%) of sodium alginate gum on the mechanical characteristics of jute fibre(untreated/treated) composites. Using hand layup process the materials were prepared. Experimental results revealed that alkali treated jute fibre sodium alginate gum composites have resulted in enhancement of mechanical strength(tensile-2.4 MPa, flexural-9.97 MPa and impact-20.3 J/m). The less moisture absorbing capacity of 0.84% was observed for the alkali treated composites. In addition to that biodegradability of the treated composite is found to be relatively superior to that of untreated one. SEM studies demonstrated that the improvement in properties was due to enhanced bonding between the fibre and matrix. Thus, the findings inferred that chemical treatment has established a good adhesion between the jute fibre and the matrix making these composite material as suitable for various domestic and industrial uses.