DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF WASTE NEWSPAPER PARTICULATE REINFORCED POLYESTER COMPOSITE
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Date
2021-07-26
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Ahmadu Bello University Zaria
Abstract
Natural fibres reinforced polymer composite plays a vital role in the fuel efficiency and gas emission
regulations of passengers’ cars. One way to increase the fuel efficiency without compromising safety
is to employ fibre reinforced composite materials in the body of the car so that weight reduction can be
achieved. This study has developed and characterized a composite material using waste newspaper
particulate (WNP) as reinforcement and unsaturated polyester as matrix. The mechanical, water
absorption and tribological properties of the developed material were determined. The mechanical
properties tested for were tensile, compressive, flexural, hardness and impact strength. Tensile
properties of the material were observed to increase as the percentage of filler reinforcement increased
with maximum tensile strength and modulus of 35.7MPa and 0.2298GPa respectively at 20wt%
reinforcement. Determined compressive strength, hardness value and impact strength were
107.26MPa, 44.57HRF and 3.79kJ/m2 respectively at 15wt% reinforcement. Flexural strength was
observed to be decreased with increased percentage of filler reinforcement due to the increase in
brittleness of the material as filler reinforcement was increased. Depth of penetration was determined
to decrease as the fibre loading was increased, while there was an increase in the percentage of water
absorbed by the material as the filler loading percentage and immersion time were increased. The
maximum percentage of water absorbed was 0.8285 at 25wt% after 192hours of immersion in water.
Thermal analysis conducted showed the materials’ conductivity to increase when the percentage of the
reinforcement was increased. The storage modulus (E ́), loss modulus (E ́ ́) and damping factor were
determined using Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and observed to be maximum at 20wt%
reinforcement with maximum values of 4000MPa, 388MPa and 0.555 respectively at about a
temperature of 130oC. SEM results showed a good interfacial bonding between the matrix and
reinforcement mostly at lower filler percentage explaining the reasons for better properties shown by
the material at those percentages. XRF and FTIR analysis were conducted, and the result showed
newspaper to contain –OH, C=C=C, N-O and C-O functional groups. The developed composite
material had best results at 15 – 20wt% reinforcement which suggest the percentage of reinforcement
for optimum service condition.