Tensile, impact and thermal properties of farm-waste based hybrid basalt polymer composites

Abstract

The use of conventional fiber (Glass/Carbon) reinforced polymer composites is not enough for many applications in modern world and hence hybrid polymer composites are required which can overcome the specific needs of various applications. In this study, farm-wastes are used to manufacture a hybrid composite which made it a cleaner material along with cost efficient one as well. Basalt reinforced sheep wool, paddy straw and bagasse based hybrid polymer composites with laminate structure were prepared using compression molding. Basalt fiber mats were kept on both sides of the mold and sheep wool content was varied in each composite sample. The composites then tested for their tensile, impact and thermal properties. The study on basalt-paddy straw-sheep wool and basalt-bagasse-sheep wool hybrid composites clearly brought out the effective use of waste material for producing value added product with improved properties. Varying of sheep wool also had optimum effect on these composites. Just 10% of sheep wool in these hybrid composites leads to more than 1.5 times improvement in tensile strength, 5 times increase in modulus, 3 times increase of elongation, and 2 times increase of charpy impact value at 20% sheep wool concentration. The thermal stability is also improved by 8–10 degrees as degradation temperature is increased. The sheep wool is more effective in basalt-paddy straw hybrid composite than the bagasse hybrid one.