Impact of nano-marble dust on characteristic development of sisal-jute hybrid composites

Abstract

Environmental awareness brings the attention towards the biodegradable natural fibre composites in most of the industrial and manufacturing sectors. The light weight, low cost, ease-in-availability, biodegradability and non-toxic inherited nature of natural fibres have predominated over the synthetic fibres. Jute hybrid composites are very common from the early decades for their superior mechanical performance. In this research work, the woven form of natural fabric like jute and sisal has been hybridised with synthetic S-glass fabrics have been reinforced in epoxy matrix by most convenient and economic hand layup process. The nano-marble dust, the waste of marble industry was used as filler in the hybrid composites. The natural fabrics are mercerised before fabrication for improvement in fibre texture in order to get better interfacial bonding, as waste materials, wax, lignin contents and other foreign ingredients are removed by the process. The various characteristics such as physical, mechanical and thermal are studied for the prepared composite specimens. It is observed that the tensile strength of the composite improved drastically due to the presence of nano-marble dust. The impact strength is also enhanced due to the addition of nano-marble dust and more no. of glass fabric layers in composite. Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the composite containing nano-marble dust and glass fibre mat exhibited maximum degradation temperature of 410.4°C.