Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Chloris barbata flower fiber /Epoxy Composites: Effect of Alkali treatment and Fiber weight fraction

Untreated and alkali-treated (5% NaOH) Chloris barbata flower fibers (CBFFs) were used to fabricate the composites by hand lay-up method. Novel composite plates were manufactured by changing fiber weight fraction (5 wt.%, 10 wt.%, 15 wt.%, 20 wt.%, and 25 wt.%), raw and 5% NaOH treated fibers. The impact of NaOH treatment and fiber weight fraction on tensile, flexural, impact, morphological, and thermal properties of CBFF reinforced epoxy composites were examined and reported for the first time in this article. The tensile, flexural, and impact properties of the composites were increased up to 20 wt. % fiber additions and after that dropped. After the tensile testing, broken cross-sections of the composites were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which showed that NaOH treated CBFF reinforced composite has better interfacial bonding and lesser voids. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared analysis (FTIR), and Atomic force microscope (AFM) analysis of composites also pointed out that alkali-treated CBFF is a suitable material for reinforcement with the epoxy polymer matrix.