Thermosetting polymer composites from unsaturated polyester resin filled alkali activated and rubber coated sustainable ferrous by-products

Abstract

Sustainable ferrous waste material which results from iron and steel making industry, slag, ‘S’, alkali activated slag (AAS) and rubber coated slag (SR) as reinforcement for unsaturated polyester composite. The S powder was subject to grinding followed by ball milling to produce Ground slag ‘GS’. Portion of the GS was subject to alkali activation to produce AAS aiming at removing the acidic oxides and changing the surface charge of the oxide particles according to the following scheme [O–M–O–M–O–H]0 ↔ [O–M–O–M–O]− + H+. Another portion of the MS was coated by nitrile rubber (NBR) under high intensive mixing. The effectiveness of the rubber coating was monitored by scanning electron microscope (SEM), and attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR). The alkali activated powder was checked by x-ray florescence (XRF). The fabricated composites were inspected with respect to their mechanical properties, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The chemical resistance of the fabricated samples by immersing in acidic and basic solutions was reported as well. The modification processes has been found to influence the performance of the composites.