Glass/jute/sisal fiber reinforced hybrid polypropylene polymer composites: Fabrication and analysis of mechanical and water absorption properties

Abstract

The main objective of the present work is to prepare a glass/jute/sisal fiber (GF/JF/SF) reinforced polypropylene (PP) hybrid composites and analyse the influence of different fiber loadings on its mechanical and water absorption behaviour. The polymer composites of various compositions with different fiber loadings such as 70 wt% PP + 30 wt% GF, 70 wt% PP + 30 wt% JF, 70 wt% PP + 30 wt% SF, 70 wt% PP + 15 wt% GF + 15 wt% JF, 70 wt% PP + 15 wt% GF + 15 wt% SF, 70 wt% PP + 10 wt% GF + 10 wt% JF + 10 wt% SF have been fabricated using compression moulding technique. The fiber loading of different fibers is found to have a significant positive effect on the performance of glass/jute/sisal fiber reinforced polypropylene hybrid composites. Among the hybrid composites one with the composition of 70% PP + 10% GF + 10% JF + 10% SF shows a maximum flexural modulus of 3119.81 MPa which is almost 130% higher than the value obtained for virgin PP. It also shows a maximum hardness value of 100.1 in R/Scale reading. The same composition shows highest impact strength of 44.15 J/m, which is almost 40% higher than the value obtained for virgin sample. Water absorption is also found to be less in all these polymer composites and hybrid composites below 0.3% (by weight).