Sustainable hybrid composites reinforced with textile waste for construction and building applications

Abstract

The textile waste fibre reinforced composites are environment-friendly and economically beneficial. However, textile waste reinforced composites have not gained the attention of composite manufacturers due to limited reported studies, a variation in the waste fibre’s physical and mechanical properties that affect the resulting composite properties. In this research, new types of hybrid composites reinforced with a carded web of cotton fibres extracted from waste cotton textiles were developed by laminating with unidirectional glass fibre preform and needle punched jute nonwoven fabric. The hybrid composite reinforced with 30 wt% of glass UD preform (on the total fibre weight in the composite) shows an improvement of tensile, flexural, and izod impact strength by ~ 266, ~300, and ~ 830%, respectively, compared to cotton web reinforced composites. The hybrid composite reinforced with 14 wt% of jute nonwoven (on the total fibre weight in the composite) shows an improvement of tensile, flexural strength, and izod impact by ~ 28, ~21, and ~ 99%, respectively, compared to cotton web reinforced composites. The developed composites are thermally stable enough. The developed composites can replace low and medium-cost timber in furniture items, construction, and building materials.