Effect of alkaline treatment on mechanical properties of biodegradable composite (BF/PLA) rod

Abstract In this modern world, research is being oriented towards new materials to develop different parts. Presently composite materials had attracted the researchers throughout the world because of their lesser weight and good properties. Along with that the natural resources available around us can be utilized to much extent due to the evolution of these new materials. Many industries like automobile, aerospace, manufacturing etc. now a days, using these composites to develop components. Biodegradable types of composites are again of much importance due to their complete environment friendly nature. So in this work, efforts have been made to develop the composite rod by the extrusion process using banana fibers as a reinforcement and polylactic acid as a resin. Fiber fraction was 0%, 10%, 20% and 30% by volume. As both reinforcement and resin are biodegradable, so the develop rod comes under the category of fully biodegradable composite. Alkaline treatment is done to remove unwanted materials (lignin) from the fibers (reduced from 14.5% to 5.4%). Rod was developed with and without alkaline treatment. Thereafter comparison was made to conclude the effect of alkaline treatment. It was found that with the increase in reinforcement properties of the composite increased. It has been found that alkaline treated composite rod shows better tensile properties (28.37 MPa) and impact properties (3.11 kJ/m2) as compare to untreated where tensile strength was 21.25 MPa and impact strength was 2.32 kJ/m2 respectively at 30% fiber fraction. SEM analysis showed uniformly distributed fibers authenticating the mechanical results obtained.