Studies on the effect of chemical treatment and additive on physico-mechanical properties of jute fibre and fibre-plastic composite

Abstract

The physico-mechanical properties of alkali, oxidized, BDC, p-nitroso N, N -dimethyl aniline, o-, m- and p- hydroxy benzene diazonium chloride treated jute fibre and treated jute – polypropylene composites were studied. In manufacturing jute-PP composites carrot powder was used as additives for different properties. The tensile strengths of differently treated jute fibre are found to increase except in the case of alkali treated one, where tensile strength was found to decrease. The highest tensile strength was obtained in the case of p-nitroso N, N-dimethyl aniline treated jute fibre. The tensile strengths of treated and raw jute fibres were found to change in the following order: p-nitroso N,N -DMA treated > BDC treated >o- HBDC treated > m- HBDC treated >p- HBDC > raw jute> oxidized > alkali treated jute fibre. The elongation at break of treated and raw jute fibre was found to change almost in the same order as it was in the case of tensile strength. The only difference is in the case of alkali treatment the decrease of tensile strength was found to be in large extent however, the decrease of elongation at break was found to be in limited extent. The moisture regain properties of raw and differently treated jute fibre are found to be changed in opposite order. That is the alkali treated jute fibre has highest moisture regain property even higher than raw jute fibre. The p-nitroso N, N-dimethyl aniline, BDC, o-, m- and p-hydroxy benzene diazonium chloride treated jute have much lower values of moisture regain properties than those of oxidized, raw and alkali treated jute fibre. The raw jute fibre and treated jute fibre were kept under the conditioned soil for observing biodegradation character. The biodegradation of raw jute fibre was found to be faster than that of treated jute fibre. For complete degradation, the treated jute fibre took around one year in comparison to three months for raw jute fibre under the identical conditions. It was also observed that the order of loss on tensile strength of differently treated fibre was raw jute fibre> alkali treated> oxidized> p-nitroso N, N-DMA > BDC > o-HBDC > m-HBDC >p-HBDC. The treated jute fibre was used as reinforced materials to prepare composites with polypropylene (PP) used as polymer matrix. The treated jute fibre was mixed with PP in different weight fraction. The physico-mechanical properties (viz. tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, Charpy impact strength and elongation at break) of these composites were studied. The tensile strength, Charpy impact strength and elongation at break of raw jute fibre-PP composites were found to be lower than that of PP only. The raw jute fibre-PP composite showed higher tensile modulus, flexural strength and flexural modulus as compared to PP only. The tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus and Charpy impact strength of treated jute fibre-PP composites were found to be higher than those of raw jute fibre-PP composites. The tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, Charpy impact strength and elongation at break of the raw jute fibre-PP and p-nitroso N, N- dimethyl aniline, benzene diazonium chloride treated jute fibre-PP composites were found to decrease with increasing fibre loading by weight fraction but in limited extent. The tensile strength, tensile modulus, elongation at break, flexural strength, flexural modulus, Charpy impact strength of treated jute fibre-PP composite along with carrot powder were found to be highest than those of treated jute fibre-PP composite without carrot powder. No systematic change is observed in the case of elongation at break of treated jute –PP composite along with carrot powder. However, treated jute fibre-PP composites containing 15% carrot have in general highest value than those of other composites. The biodegradability test of different composites studied in this investigation showed that in general the chemical treatment of jute fibre decreases the biodegradability of the composite. However, incorporation of carrot powder increases the biodegradability. Scanning Electron Microscope for observing surface morphology, particle size, particle distribution, porosity and pore size analysis was carried out of raw jute-PP, alkali bleached p-nitroso N, N -dimethyl aniline treated jute fibre without and with carrot powder-PP composites and alkali bleached o-HBDC treated jute fibre with carrot powder-PP composites in this work. Thermo–gravimetric analysis (TGA) of composites was carried out. Thermo Gravimetric/Differential Thermal Analyzer (TG/DTA) has been designed to perform thermo gravimetric and differential thermal analytic measurement on raw jute-PP composites, alkali bleached oxidized p-nitroso N, N-dimethyl aniline treated jute fibre-PP composites, alkali bleached oxidized p-nitroso N, N-dimethyl aniline treated jute fibre along with carrot powder-PP composites and alkali bleached oxidized o-HBDC treated jute fibre along with carrot powder-PP composites.