Mechanical Properties of Chemical Treated Woven Banana/Polyvinyl Alcohol Composites

Abstract

Present work investigates the effect of chemical treatment on mechanical properties of plain woven banana fabrics (PWBF) reinforced to polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) bio-degradable matrix composite. Woven banana fabrics are chemically treated with different percentages of concentration (0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4%) for 4 hours at room temperature. The banana fabrics and PVA are used in the ratio of 55% and 45% weight fraction respectively. Composites are prepared using hand-layup method. The samples are tested according to different ASTM standard for tensile, flexural and impact.The results are exhibited that tensile, flexural and impact properties were found to increase with potassium permanganate (KMnO4) treatment. The 1% potassium permanganate treated fabrics shows very good mechanical properties compared to untreated, 0.5, 2, 3 and 4% treated fabrics, 1% treated fabrics gives 68.07% increment in the tensile strength of the composite compared to the untreated fabrics composite. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) also reveals 1% treated has the better interfacial bonding between fabrics and matrix. This contributes to improvement in the mechanical properties of the composite. © 2019 ICE Publishing: All rights reserved.