Irradiated Jute Reinforced Polypropylene Composites: Effect of Mercerization and SEM Analysis

Islam Bossunia Mt,Poddar P

doi:10.4172/2169-0022.1000266

Abstract

Jute fibres (Corchorus olitorious L.), an environmentally and ecologically friendly product, were chemically modified and treated as surface treatment which was carried out by mercerizing jute fabrics with aqueous solutions of NaOH (5,10 and 20%) at different soaking times (30, 60 and 90 minutes) and temperatures (0, 25 and 50°C). These mercerized jute fabric reinforced polypropylene composites were fabricated by composition molding technique and equated with virgin jute fabric reinforced polypropylene composites, fabricated by same technique. The above composite samples ware compared by evaluating the mechanical parameters such as tensile strength, tensile modulus, bending strength, bending modulus. The effect of mercerization on weight and dimension of jute fabrics was studied. Mechanical properties of mercerized jute-PP composites ware measured and found highest at 20% NaOH at 0°C for 60 min soaking time. Alkali treatment helped in the development of hydrophobicity and reduction in volume fraction of the porosity. This may be due to the better fibre matrix interface adhesion caused due to the fibre surface treatment by alkali. The optimized formulation was irradiated by γ radiation at different dosage (100, 150, 200, 250 & 500 Krad). Among them 250 Krad showed highest mechanical properties

Highlights

Environmental awareness and depletion of the petroleum resources are among vital factors that motivate a number of researchers to explore the potential of reusing natural fiber [1,2,3,4] as an alternative composite material in industries such as automotive component [5,6], packaging materials [7],insulation [8,9], acoustic absorption panel [10,11] and building materials [12,13]
The weight of jute fiber follows a decreasing trend from 5% to 20% of NaOH and at the same concentration it decreases from 30 min to 90 min. the maximum weight loss is 20.37% which is for 20% NaOH (90 min) (Figure 1)
The dimension of jute fiber follows a decreasing trend from 5% to 20% of NaOH and at the same concentration it decreases from 30 min to 90 min. the highest value obtains is 44.01% which is for 20% NaOH (60 min) (Figure 2)