Property Enhancement of Chicken Feather‐Epoxidized Soybean Oil Composites Using Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube

Abstract In this work, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were amino functionalized to fabricate chicken feather fiber‐based polymer nanocomposites by the compression molding technique. The matrix comprised methacrylic anhydride‐modified epoxidized soybean oil, with rosin acid derivative as the crosslinker, chicken feather fibers (CF) as the reinforcing agent, and f ‐MWCNTs as the nano‐reinforcement. The modification of MWCNT was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Raman spectroscopy. Various properties of the prepared nanocomposites were investigated by loading different percentages of f ‐MWCNT (0, 0.25, and 0.5%). TGA results demonstrated that with the increase in addition of f ‐MWCNT's into the composites, the thermal stability increased. Moreover, the mechanical strengths of the composites were also found to be enhanced with the addition of f ‐MWCNT's. f ‐MWCNT in the chicken feather fiber‐based composites were also found to be effective in improving flame retardancy according to limiting oxygen index (LOI) measurements. It was observed that the incorporation of 0.5% f ‐MWCNT's into chicken feather fiber‐based composites resulted in the most pronounced enhancement across all investigated properties. The improvement in properties offered by the nanocomposites is attributed to uniform distribution and enhanced interfacial adhesion between MWCNTs, the matrix, CFs, and rosin acid derivative.