Mechanical and thermal properties of epoxy composites reinforced with waste peanut shell powder as a bio-filler

Abstract

Bio-filled polymer composites are gradually replacing plastics to achieve the aim of environmental sustainability. Present study has been carried out to prepare the composites made by reinforcing waste peanut shell powder (PSP) as a natural filler into epoxy resin matrix. The natural filler extracted by manual process was subjected to alkali treatment with the concentrations of 2, 5 and 7 w/v%. The composites fabricated by varying the weight fractions of filler in the range of 5 to 15 wt%. The effects of bio-filler content of the composites on tensile and thermal properties were evaluated by Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), universal testing machine, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The studies reveal that the tensile strength and tensile modulus increased with the increasing of bio-filler content. The highest mechanical properties of 7 % alkali treated PSP loaded Epoxy composite were achieved at biofiller mass content of 15 wt.%. The morphology of the composites shows better bonding between the filler and resin, thus leading to improvement of the mechanical properties. The TGA results revealed that the polymer composites showed thermal resistance on increasing NaOH concentration and filler content.