Thermo-Mechanical and Morphological Properties of Water Hyacinth Reinforced Polypropylene Composites

Abstract

This paper focusses on the analysis of thermo-mechanical and morphological properties of water hyacinth (WH) fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) biocomposites manufactured by using a single screw extruder and an injection molding machine. With a view to increasing the compatibility between the WH fibers and polypropylene matrix, raw WH fibers were chemically treated with Benzenediazonium salt in base media. Composites were manufactured with five different levels of loading (15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 wt%) of both the raw and treated WH fibers. Thermal properties of WH-PP composites were evaluated by thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses. To analyze mechanical properties of composites, tests of tensile strength and stiffness, flexural strength and stiffness, and Charpy impact strength were carried out following ASTM standards. It was found that thermal stability and all the mechanical properties except tensile strength were improved considerably for chemically treated WH fiber composites in comparison with untreated ones. Fracture surfaces of the tensile and flexural specimens were scanned with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to understand their surface morphologies. The SEM images clearly revealed that there were fewer fiber agglomerations, microvoids, and fiber pull out traces in treated WH-PP composites than in the untreated ones indicating better distribution of the fibers into the matrix as well as stronger fiber matrix interfacial adhesion due to treatment of WH fibers. Water absorption properties were studied to evaluate the viability of these biocomposites under specified conditions.

Microstructural and Thermo-Physical Characterization of a Water Hyacinth Petiole for Thermal Insulation Particle Board Manufacture

“…The WHP had lower lignin content, compared with previous results where the whole plant had been utilized [ 57 ]. Although the WH chemical composition varies, depending on the part of the plant [ 28 , 29 , 31 , 58 , 59 ], it is clear that WH is a low-lignin material, compared to other plants used for binder-less board manufacturing, such as kenaf, cotton stalks, or coconut, which have 9%, 26%, and 45% lignin, by weight, respectively [ 60 , 61 , 62 ]. For the same reason, unlike previous WH studies [ 33 , 34 ], the low levels of lignin in the petiole (compared with other plant fibres) [ 5 , 7 ] confirm that it is not necessary to perform de-lignification processes.…”

“…WH aerenchyma are natural sets of empty cells with thin polysaccharide walls [ 66 ], with an organisation resembling bubble wrap ( Figure 6 ). In previously studied WH panels [ 31 , 33 , 34 ], the internal pore structure of the WH was clogged by the matrices used. These matrices have a higher thermal conductivity than air and, therefore, had poor behaviour as a thermal insulator.…”

“…Additionally, the mentioned authors applied higher compaction to their panels than in our case. The procedure, followed in the literature [ 31 , 33 , 34 ], destroyed the internal pore structure and eliminated the best potential characteristic of WH as a raw material. The aerenchymas are typical of aquatic plants but, in the case of WH, they are very abundant, forming its main biomass.…”

“…Although it was used in the handicraft sector [20], Water Hyacinth Petiole (WHP) as a construction material has been studied since the 1980s, when plant fibres appeared as an alternative solution to asbestos [21,22]. In addition, it has been analysed as a reinforcement material in concrete, mortars, and cement pastes [23,24,25,26,27], geotextiles [28], soil [8,29,30], or plastic matrices [31,32]. However, its inefficient use in the sector is due to the lack of a complete understanding of the anatomy, structure, and chemical composition of WHP.…”

El Jacinto de Agua como material de construcción en África Subsahariana

“…Los resultados reportados indican que la incorporación de fibra de JA mejora el comportamiento mecánico de los compuestos finales, pero empeora su trabajabilidad. En el caso de las matrices poliméricas, destaca su aplicación constructiva como material de aislamiento térmico (Abral et al, 2014; Al Amin and Rafiquzzaman, 2018; Asrofi et al, 2018;Flores Ramirez et al, 2015;Jaktorn and Jiajitsawat, 2014;Rahmawati et al, 2018;Saha, 2011;Saha and Afsar, 2018;Tan and Supri, 2016). Por último, las fibras de JA también han sido empleadas para el refuerzo de suelos (Bordoloi et al, 2015;Vardhan et al, 2017) y ladrillos de arcilla cocidos (Goel and Kalamdhad, 2018).…”