Natural Fibres in Enhancing Toughness and Hardness of Epoxy-based Polymer Composites

To meet global needs, the production of auto bodies is increasing day by day. This is also growing the CO2 emission proportionately and challenging the existence of humanity. Replacement of high-density metallic components, as much as possible, by lightweight materials might reduce the overall vehicle weight leading to lower fuel consumption and CO2 emission. The use of high-strength and high-toughness plastic-based materials in auto bodies might help us in this regard. Unfortunately, all plastic-based products are not biodegradable or environmentally friendly. For the development of biodegradable polymer composites, the role of natural fibers is very vital. This article reports the experimental results on the effects of different types of natural fibers (chopped jute fiber and wood saw dust particles) on the impact toughness of the epoxy-based thermosetting polymer. For this study, at first, pure epoxy was cast into circular disc. In the next stage, 5% chopped jute fiber and saw dust particles were added separately in the pure epoxy resin, and they were cast. Then, the toughness values and fracture morphologies of the pure epoxy samples and the developed composites were characterized by drop ball impact tests. Thus, the experimental results suggest that both the chopped jute fiber and wood saw dust enhance the toughness of the epoxy-based polymer composites. In this context, jute fibers have been found to be more potent.