Studies on mechanical properties of cellulosic fiber from coccinia indica reinforced epoxy composites

Abstract

Natural fiber based products meet the current motto of green manufacturing. Industrial and academic sectors interest turned towards natural fiber based products. All leading industries like aircraft, automobile, space and home appliances currently use the composite material and it leads in saving considerable amount of fuel and at the same time, prompts more strength and stiffness and as a result it can reduce the weight of components. Natural fiber reinforced composite materials are selected due to reasons like enhanced mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, easy manufacturing, long life and good appearance in addition to its abundant available, bio-degradable, low cost and eco friendly in nature. Hence utilization of natural fiber reinforced composite laminates increases day by day. The aim of this research is to establish a novel natural fiber as reinforcement in polymer matrix. Coccinia Indica (CI) is one of the species that have lingo-cellulosic material extracted simply with less power. CI plants are found all over the world and can be easily spotted in India. In this work, microbial degradation process is used for extracting CI stem fiber and alalization treatment is carried out on raw CI fibers to remove impurities from the fiber surface. Alkali treatments on the fibers are carried out with three different alkali concentrations and experimentally it is found that it affects the moisture absorption, physical, chemical and mechanical properties of CocciniaIndica Fiber (CIF). Raw and NaOH treated fibers are analsed using surface morphology, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Thermogavimetric analysis (TGA). newline