Mechanical, thermal and flammability properties of nonwoven kenaf reinforced acrylic based polyester composites: Effect of water glass treatment

Abstract

Within this current work, polyester resin on acrylic basis will be modified by the incorporation of environment-friendly sodium silicates (water glass). The modified resin system then was applied on non-woven kenaf fibre (KF) mat via resin impregnation process followed by a compression moulding to prepare the composite samples. The purposes of introducing water glass into the resin system were to improve the fibre-matrix wettability and enhancing the fire resistance in the reinforced composites. Mechanical, thermal and surface morphologies of the composites were examined. The variations in water glass composition in enhancing the flame retardant properties of the composites were evaluated by limiting oxygen index (LOI) and UL94 standard. Significant improvement of fire resistance properties of the composites as amount of water glass increases was observed but reduction in mechanical properties of the composites was recorded.