A Study Of The Combined Effect Of Alkali And Silane Treatments On The Physico-mechanical Properties Of Jute Fibre-reinforced E51 Epoxy Composite

With the current tide of environmental pollution,it has become imperative to focus on more environmentally friendly,sustainable,as well as economically feasible methods of production,building and all other aspects of life requiring the use of polymers and/or composites.Due to this,as well as their desirable physical properties,the use of natural fibres as reinforcement for composites has generated more and more interest over the years.In this research work,jute fibres have been used as reinforcement for E51 epoxy resin(as the matrix).The focus has been to study the effects of surface treatment of the jute reinforcing fibres on the mechanical and interfacial properties of the resulting composite.The whole procedure of this research can be divided into two main steps.First was the investigation of the effect of various concentrations of alkali(sodium hydroxide(NaOH))solution on the overall composite properties.Second step was the treatment with silane coupling agent.In this step,similar to the first,varying concentrations of silane were used and their effects were carefully monitored.In both steps,the optimal conditions were obtained,in which the resulting composite showed the highest values for the properties tested for.The results show that 5 weight%of NaOH yielded the best properties for the alkali treatment step.This results from the alkali eliminating the hemicellulose,lignin and waxes of the fibre,leading to an increase in surface roughness.The roughness also translates to an increased surface area for better anchorage to the matrix.Silane coupling agent solution is known to improve surface activity and diminish water absorption in addition to the surface polarity of the reinforcing fibres.After the research,5%emerged as the best concentration at which to use silane as at this concentration,the corresponding composite yielded the highest value of the tested properties.A combination of the optimal concentrations of both steps resulted in the subsequent jute fibre reinforced composite yielding the greatest values for the mechanical and interfacial properties tested.