Mechanical, dynamic mechanical and thermal analysis of casuarina leaf fibre and moringa gum filler reinforced epoxy biocomposite

Abstract

These days, the automotive sector and manufacturing industries have begun adopting renewable materials due to public awareness of the usage of polymers and severe legal pressures surrounding their use. This research is focused on using casuarina leaf fibre as reinforcement in an epoxy matrix together with natural moringa gum filler since natural fibre reinforced composites are essential for the development of lightweight structural materials. It is observed that the synergistic impact of fibre and natural filler improved adhesion and stress is transferred more evenly across the reinforcements. The mechanical, viscoelastic, thermal and biodegradability properties have been investigated on incorporation of 4,8,12,16 and 20v/v % of moringa gum in casuarina epoxy composite and the results indicated that the addition of moringa gum filler increased the tensile, flexural and impact strength of the composites indicating that moringa gum is a promising filler. Using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetric analysis (DSC), it is found that the development of hybrid composites increased thermal stability, with distinct degradation patterns.