Improved Mechanical Properties of Jute-Banana Fiber Phenol Formaldehyde Composites through Low-Cost Portable Hot Pressing Machine

Abstract

Eco-friendliness and biodegradability are the primary requirements of many of the composite products used in view of the growing concern to save our earth. There is a need to explore the means and protocols for developing eco-friendly and biodegradable products with quality parameters to perform for the specified end use. Products for Auto-Tech and Aero-Tech need to be designed based on the characteristic properties of the specific plant fibers. The optimum quantity and type of fiber play a crucial role in assessment of the mechanical and viscoelastic properties of the composites. In this work, an attempt has been made to design and develop a low-cost portable hot pressing machine for manufacturing polymer composites to improve the mechanical properties. Jute and banana fiber hybrid composites were produced with varying weight percentages of phenol formaldehyde (PF) in the range of 40–70 wt.%. The tensile, flexural, impact, hardness, and water absorption tests were carried out on jute-banana fiber hybrid PF composite. The study shows that hybrid composites with 50 % fibers by weight yield a significant increase in tensile and flexural strength with respect to other weight percentages of fibers, but the impact strength was lower in the case of 50 % fibers by weight. The microphotographs from a scanning electron microscope revealed a reasonably good fracture failure mechanisms, indicating enhanced mechanical properties. Further, to know the viscoelastic properties, a dynamic mechanical analysis was carried out to assess the properties of temperature dependency such as storage modulus, loss modulus, and damping factor. The results indicate that the composite with 50 wt.% fiber content has great storage modulus values and reduced damping behavior.