Natural Fiber Reinforced Unsaturated Polyester Resin Filled with Bio-based Calcium Carbonate: Preparation and Examination

• Published in: Fibers and polymers 2022, 23(5), , pp.1366-1377
• Main Authors: Sharaf, Ahmed Mohamed, Syala, Eslam, Ezzat, Abbas Anwar, Ali, Salah F. Abdellah, El-Rafey, E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural wastes; Calcium carbonate; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Elongation; Fiber reinforced polymers; Flexural strength; Impact strength; Mechanical properties; Modulus of elasticity; Polyester resins; Polyesters; Polymer Sciences; Tensile strength; Thermal stability; Water absorption; 섬유공학
• ISSN: 1229-9197; 1875-0052
• DOI: 10.1007/s12221-022-4460-1

Both the chicken eggshell (ES) and rice husk (RH) represent environmental, and pollution issues. Incorporating both of them, with minimum processing procedures, in various useful applications is a major contribution in solving such problems. In this research, unsaturated polyester (UP) was doped with different percentages (5–25 wt.%) of fine (ES) to form one (UP-ES) composite system. The (UP-ES) system was reinforced with a fixed 10 wt.% of (RH), which represents an agricultural waste produced in tonnage, to fabricate the second system. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis emerged that the (ES) is forming from calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) resembling typically the mineral one. The addition of (ES) enhanced both the mechanical characteristics of (UP) resin in terms of tensile strength, elongation %, tensile modulus, impact strength, flexural strength from 26.33 to 33.77 MPa, from 3.30 to 3.60 MPa, from 2000 to 2406.67 MPa, from 1.25 to 2.42 kJ/m 2 , from 64.93 to 75.07 MPa, and the thermal stability from 335.75 to 346.24 °C, respectively. This inclusion of (ES) also promoted both the limiting oxygen index (LOI) and dielectric constant ( ε r ) of (UP) from 17.25 to 23.50 % and from 6.76 to 11.02, respectively. The addition of (RH) to (ES-UP) composite, generally, gave the same attitude for the properties like what in the (ES-UP) system other than the remarkable extra-increase in the ( ε r ). Also, (RH) elevated the water absorption (%) of (ES-UP) composite by the action of its hydrophilic nature. It is concluded that the incorporation of both (ES) and (RH) reduces the final cost of the composite and solves one of the great environmental disposal issues.