Effect of Coupling Agent on Mechanical Properties of Palm Petiole Nanofiber Reinforced Composite

Abstract

Composites have replaced conventional materials due to their advantages such as low cost, low density, high strength, etc. recently the research has been focused on natural fibers as a suitable replacement for synthetic fibers for reinforcement in composites. Hence, in this work, natural fiber is extracted from palm petiole and this fiber is investigated for reinforcement in epoxy polymer. The fiber is subjected to different chemical treatments for enhancing the surface wetting and Nano cellulose will also be extracted from the fiber. The composite will be fabricated by using handlay-up method by using 1%, 2%, 3% volume fraction of cellulose nanofiber in the epoxy resin. It is observed that the increase of the nanofiber in 3% volume fraction gives the good tensile, flexural and impact strength. So they obtained chemically treated cellulose nanofiber was treated with the amino propyl triethoxysilane and 3% of the silanesilane treated nano-fiber fabricated. Then the mechanical testings of this is compared with the 3% of chemically treated nano-fiber composite. The silane treated nanofiber gives the best results.