Investigation on the Morphological properties of Date palm (Phoenix dactyliferous) fibre and Epoxy bio-composite for industrial applications

Abstract

The date palm tree is a very important crop that is grown on a large scale in Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman. Date palm stems and leaves come in large quantities as agricultural residues. The stem and leaves of date palm trees, which are common in the Al-Batinah region, might be easily and cheaply used to extract large amounts of fibre. Moreover, they have durability, as well as various strand textures. Using natural fibres made from renewable resources benefits the environment in terms of waste material use and eco-friendly disposability. Due to their availability, widespread use, renewable nature, cost-effectiveness, and eco-friendliness, natural fibre composites have become the focus of research and development. Use of composite materials has grown more common in vehicle, aircraft, marine, and civil structures due to their balanced mechanical qualities. By fortifying the fibres into polymers, properties including compression, impact strength, hardness, and flexural strength of the composites must be ensured. To create fibre/epoxy composites with improved qualities, date palm fibres are more reliable. However, the strength and properties of the fibres may not be the same for the trees grown in different regions. Therefore, in this work, the strength of the composite produced from DPFs of local varieties is tested for the above-specified mechanical properties. The major objective is to find the possibility of using waste date palm tree fibres (DPF) to get a good natural polymer composite which and can be used for different applications. A suitable epoxy has been used as the binder, and the absorbent nature of DPF is controlled by using sodium hydroxide. After treatment, it enhanced the properties of composites. The maximum impact strength and flexural strength of the composite were observed at 21.42 kN/m and 260.41 MN. which proves the reliability of the local DPF for many high-tech applications.