The Effect of Reinforcing Moringa Oleifera Bark Fibre on the Tensile and Deformation Behaviour of Epoxy and Silicone Rubber Composites

Abstract

The moringa oleifera bark (MOB) is well-known for its medicinal properties and various benefits, where combining it with polymers could produce a new superior composite material for medicinal applications. Because this is a novel composite material, even basic information on how the MOB fibres altered the tensile properties of epoxy and silicone rubber is still lacking. Therefore, this study investigated the tensile and deformation behaviour of two newly introduced composite materials, MOB fibre reinforced into epoxy and silicone rubber. ASTM D3039 and ASTM D412 were adapted to prepare the hard and soft composite specimens (0, 4, 8, 12 and 16wt%.), respectively. T-test was conducted to determine the significant difference. The results show that the tensile modulus of MOB-epoxy biocomposite improved from 1240 MPa to 1668 MPa (35% increment) when the fibre content was increased to 16wt%. For MOB–silicone biocomposite, a similar trend was observed where the tensile modulus also increased from 0.076 MPa to 0.12 MPa (64% increment) as the fibre concentration increased from 0 to 16wt%. In conclusion, reinforcing MOB fibre affected the stiffness of silicone rubber more than epoxy; but affected the elongation of epoxy more than silicone rubber. Based on a t-score of 17.5, a significant difference is observed in how reinforcing MOB at various wt% affected the increment of tensile modulus for both hard and soft composites. Finally, the determined tensile modulus compared to other materials could be useful for benchmarking and exploring potential applications.