Studies on characterization of surface treated lagenaria siceraria fiber and its reinforcement effect on epoxy composites

Abstract

The growing environment challenges like pollution, abrupt drop in resource depletion, unforeseen exhaustion of fossil fuels, a mindless insistence on plastics in every walk of human life have all vitalized the research and development labs to hunt for eco-friendly, biodegradable products with upgraded performance. Extensive quests and intensive research pursuits brought to limelight the potential of the plant-based fiber research. Such concerted efforts brought to the composite materials a few decades ago. They were proved to be the ideal substitutes for the conventional materials, especially in terms of sustainable materials that are processed by lower energy consumption like the plant based fiber composites. Today s research intensive ambience has driven several researchers and material scientists to focus on rich fiber yielding plant resources that may hold greater promise for enriched mechanical and other important properties in the resulting composites. Extraction of natural fibers may be done from various parts of the plants like leaves, stems, roots, fruits and seeds. Some stem fibers like flax, hemp, jute, ramie and linen have attracted attention due to their categorical properties and case of obtainability. newlineThere is an ongoing quest for composites made of natural fibers as they are available in local surroundings and they are not exhausted by the research community so there is a pristine promise for making fiber reinforced composites to fabricate lightweight composite components. Considering all these promises and prospects a new stem fiber from the plant, Lagenaria Siceraria (LS), locally known as the bottle gourd was identified and was subjected to research analysis. newline newline