Physical and mechanical behaviour of epoxy/hexagonal boron nitride/short sisal fiber hybrid composites

Abstract

Hand lay-up method is used to fabricate a new class of hybrid composite i.e. surface modified hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and short sisal fiber reinforced in epoxy matrix. Silane coupling agent, γ-aminopropyl triethoxy silane were used for surface treatment of micro-size hexagonal boron nitride involved whereas sisal fiber were treated with NaOH aqueous solution prior to reinforce it in epoxy matrix. The effect of surface modified hBN filler/sisal fiber content on physical and mechanical properties of fabricated composites were investigated in this paper. While studying physical properties, it was observed that water absorption rate increases with increase in either of the fillers, whereas, density increases with hBN content and decreases with sisal fiber content. On the other hand, void content increases with inclusion of either of the filler material. Mechanical properties evaluation shows that increase in hBN content benefits more on compressive strength and hardness whereas inclusion of sisal fiber provides improved tensile properties by making material more ductile. Hence, combination of both the fillers improves overall mechanical property of the epoxy based hybrid material.