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Polymer Testing 27 (2008) 591 595

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Polymer Testing
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/polytest

Material Properties

Mechanical performance of coir ber/polyester composites

S.N. Monteiro a, L.A.H. Terrones a, J.R.M. DAlmeida b,
a b

Science and Technology Center, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, Av. Alberto Lamego, 2000-Horto-28015-820, Campos, RJ, Brazil cia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, Materials Science and Metallurgy Department, Pontif Rua Marques de Sao Vicente,225-Gavea-22453-900, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

a r t i c l e in fo
Article history: Received 24 January 2008 Accepted 10 March 2008 Keywords: Coir ber Composites Flexural strength Micromechanics

abstract
The structural characteristics and mechanical properties of coir ber/polyester composites were evaluated. The coir bers were obtained from disregarded coconut shells that if not properly processed constitute an environmental hazard. The as-received coir ber was characterized by scanning electron microscopy coupled with X-ray dispersion analysis. Composites prepared with two molding pressures and with amounts of coir ber up to 80 wt% were fabricated. Up to 50 wt% of ber, rigid composites were obtained. For amounts of ber higher than this gure, the composites performed like more exible agglomerates. The results obtained for exural strength allowed comparison of the technical performance of the composites with other conventional materials. & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Natural bers such as cotton, ax and sisal have been used since historical times in a large variety of products, ranging from clothes to house roong. Today, these bers are appraised as environmentally correct materials owing to their biodegradability and renewable characteristics. Moreover, lignocellulosic bers are neutral with respect to the emission of CO2 [1]. This is an extremely important aspect, and puts lignocellulosic bers as materials in context with the Kyoto protocol. In addition to plants that are cultivated with the main purpose of using the ber, in other plants the ber has secondary or no commercial interest at all. This is the case of the banana trees, which are cultivated for the fruits. From the leftover leaves and bark of banana trees, bers with good mechanical properties can be obtained [2]. However, these bers are seldom used since the tree is normally discarded as garbage after the fruits are collected.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 21 3527 1789; fax: +55 21 3527 1236.

E-mail address: dalmeida@dcmm.puc-rio.br (J.R.M. DAlmeida). 0142-9418/$ - see front matter & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.polymertesting.2008.03.003

Another crop with a similar characteristic is coconut (Cocos nucifera). Plantations of coconut are spread all over the world in tropical and sub-tropical regions, and are an important item in the economy of many of these regions. The annual world production of coconut is about 42 million MT, which would equate to almost 50 billion coconuts [3]. The main use of coconut is for culinary purpose, and after extraction of the copra and/or of the liquid endosperm that lls the interior of the fruits the fruit shell is disregarded. Transformation industries and regions where consumption of coconut is high have, therefore, a large problem to conveniently dispose of this waste, since the fruit shell has a long decay time. The coconut fruit is, in fact, adapted for being dispersed by seawater, and can oat for months without rotting. Growing attention is nowadays being paid to coconut ber. Fibers extracted from the husk of the nut, known as coir ber, are now being commercially used, blended with natural rubber latex in the production of seat cushion parts in automobiles [4]. These bers are extracted from the external layer of the exocarp and from the endocarp of the fruit. The coconut palm can, in fact, be regarded as an integral ber producer because bers can be extracted from many parts of the palm, such as from the leaf sheath, the bark of the petiole or from the midribs of leaves [5,6].

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Many aspects of the use of coir bers as reinforcement in polymermatrix composites are described in the literature. Coir berpolyester composites were tested as helmets, as roong and post-boxes [7]. These composites, with coir loading ranging from 9 to 15 wt%, have a exural strength of about 38 MPa. Coirpolyester composites with untreated and treated (PMMA and PAN grafted) coir bers, and with ber loading of 17 wt%, were tested in tension, exure and notched Izod impact [8]. The results obtained with the untreated bers show clear signs of the presence of a weak interfacelong pulled-out bers without any resin adhered to the bersand low mechanical properties were obtained. Although showing better mechanical performance, the composites with treated bers present, however, only a moderate increase on the values of the mechanical properties analyzed. Alkali treatment is also reported for coir bers [9,10]. Treated berpolyester composites, with volume fraction ranging from 10% to 30%, show better properties than composites with untreated bers, but the exural strength of these composites was consistently lower than that of the bare matrix. A maximum value of 42.3 MPa is reported against a value of 48.5 MPa for the neat polyester. Acetylation of coir bers increases the hydrophobic behavior, increases the resistance to fungi attack and also increases the tensile strength of coirpolyester composites [11,12]. However, the ber loading has to be fairly high, 45 wt% or even higher, to attain a signicant reinforcing effect when the composite is tested in tension. Moreover, even with high coir ber loading fractions, there is no improvement in the exural strength [12]. From these results, it is apparent that the usual ber treatments reported so far did not signicantly change the mechanical performance of coirpolyester composites. Since most data in literature with few exceptions [12] usually cover only a specic loading fraction of bers, and remembering that the increase of cost due to the treatment of the bers must be a point of concern, this work was aimed at analyzing the exural mechanical behavior of untreated coirpolyester composites covering a larger range of weight fractions. The effect of the molding pressure on the exural strength of the composites was also evaluated.

Fig. 1. Aspect of the coir bers used: (a) tangled bers and (b) pressed mat.

2. Experimental procedures and materials Individually loose coir bers were used in two distinct forms: tangled or pressed in mats with a thickness of 1.0 cm. The bers were used untreated, except that they were dried at 50 1C for 24 h. Fig. 1 illustrates the two kinds of coir bers, tangled mass and pressed mats, used in this work. A commercially available unsaturated orthoftalic polyester resin with 1 wt% of methyl-ethyl-ketone as catalyst was used as matrix for the composites. After being thoroughly mixed, the resin was poured into the cavity of a steel mold, which was previously lled with a suitable amount of coir ber. Composites with amounts of coir bers ranging from 10 to 80 wt% were manufactured at two pressure levels, namely: 2.6 and 5.2 MPa. The cure was done under pressure at room temperature.

As the bers in any of the two congurations (tangled or mat) did not have a preferred orientation, the composites fabricated in the present work are considered as randomly oriented. Rectangular specimens 122 mm long, 25 mm wide and 10 mm thick were bend tested, using the three-point bending procedure, on a 100 kN capacity testing machine. The velocity of the test was 5 mm/min, which corresponds to a strain rate of 1.6 102 s1. The span-to-depth ratio was maintained constant at 9, and the minimum number of specimens used for each of the test conditions and coir ber arrangements was 6. Before their incorporation in the composites, the coir bers were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The analysis was performed on gold-sputtered samples in a microscope, coupled with EDS, operating at a beam voltage of 15 kV. 3. Experimental results and discussion The characteristic surface aspect of a coir ber observed by SEM is shown in Fig. 2. As reported previously [10,13], one should notice that the ber surface is covered with protrusions and with voided areas left by detached

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Fig. 2. Surface morphology of coir bers, showing the characteristic array of protrusions () found at the surface of the bers.

protruded material. In principle, and similar to what was observed for piassaba bers [14], these morphological aspects can facilitate the resin impregnation onto the ber. Fig. 3 shows an EDS spectrum performed at the bers surface. The spectrum reveals, besides the obviously carbon and oxygen common to any organic matter, the presence of calcium and other alkaline and alkaline earth elements. Calcium was associated with the protrusions shown in Fig. 2. This result was surprising, since silicon-rich protrusions were identied in a previous work [13]. It is suggested that this marked difference could be due to differences in the soil where coconuts were raised. A detailed analysis needs to be carried out on this specic topic. The gold peaks in the spectrum correspond to the sputtered metal used to avoid charging at the microscope chamber during the analysis. Table 1 presents the average exural strength and corresponding standard deviation obtained in the threepoint bend tests for the two coir ber arrangements, tangled or mat, polyester composites cured at the two different molding pressures. As a rst comment, one should say that composites with less than 50 wt% of bers were found to be stiff and relatively hard, while those with more than 50 wt% were soft and deformable. Therefore, with respect to the mechanical behavior, the composites manufactured act as two completely distinct materials. Up to 50 wt% of coir bers, the manufactured composites are rigid, structural-like, materials. By contrast, above this percentage, the polyester resin does not properly impregnate all bers, even for a molding pressure of 5.2 MPa. As a consequence, the material becomes exible and easy to bend, performing like binderless agglomerates [15]. Fig. 4 shows the strength variation with the amount of coir bers for the composites fabricated at the two molding pressure levels. In these graphs, obtained from the data in Table 1, it is important to note the following points. First, for both types of coir ber and different compaction pressures, the strength tends to decrease with the amount of ber. This reveals that the randomly

Fig. 3. EDS spectrum of the bers surface.

Table 1 Flexural strength of the coir ber polyester composites Weight % of coir ber Molding pressure Pressed mat 2.6 MPa 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 25.775.2 18.973.6 14.574.5 9.671.1 6.070.9 4.371.7 3.071.2 0.970.6 5.2 MPa 31.276.7 22.671.2 21.473.5 11.473.3 11.971.5 5.971.2 4.672.6 1.070.4 Tangled mass 2.6 MPa 29.176.8 28.272.1 22.579.9 20.775.1 15.577.9 6.775.1 5.473.5 3.672.2 5.2 MPa 32.873.8 29.573.5 24.773.3 23.975.9 21.178.4 14.375.8 8.873.6 6.173.0

oriented coir bers are not reinforcing the polyester matrix at all. Previous data showing the non-reinforcing behavior of coir bers in composites submitted to bending do not show a steady decrease of the exural strength as observed here. The results obtained by Hill and coworkers [12] present a maximum around 50 wt%. Since in the present work a smaller span-to-depth ratio (S/d 9) was used in relation to that of Hill and coworkers (S/d 16), and knowing that the smaller the span-to-depth ratio the greater the contribution of the shear stress, one could assert that the results obtained are not directly comparable. The main conclusion of both works, however, is the non-reinforcing behavior of coir bers. In fact, the reinforcing behavior of coir bers in polyester matrix is expected to be minimized due to the low modulus of the coir ber. Values as low as 4.7 GPa are reported [12], and for an efcient partition of the load applied to the composite between the matrix and the bers, the ratio of the bers elastic modulus to that of the matrix must be

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1 40 Flexural Rupture Strength (MPa) TANGLED MASS 30 Pf / Pc

0.7 0.5 Vf = 0.3 Vf = 0.1

20

0.5

10

Molding Pressure 2.6 MPa 5.2 MPa

0 10 20 40 30 50 60 70 Amount of Coir Fiber (wt.%) 80

0 1 50 Ef / Em 100

40 Flexural Rupture Strength (MPa) PRESSED MAT 30

Molding Pressure 2.6 MPa 5.2 MPa

Fig. 5. Variation of the ratio of the load carried out by bers with respect to the load applied to the composite as a function of the elastic moduli ratio and volume fraction of bers.

20

10

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Amount of Coir Fiber (wt.%) 80

Fig. 4. Variation of the exural strength with the mass fraction of coir bers and molding pressure. (a) tangled bers; (b) pressed mat.

maximized [16]. Fig. 5 shows that for ber/matrix modulus ratio close to 1, as would be the case for the composites analyzed here, only a fraction of the load applied to the composite (Pc) will be carried by the bers (Pf). Namely, 0:1pP f =P c p0:7 for volume fractions of ber ranging from 0.1 to 0.7. Therefore, the matrix is always under high loading and failures under low stress levels are to be expected. Another point is that the experimental results have a relatively high dispersion, as given by its standard deviation. This is a consequence of the intrinsic variability found on natural bers that ranges from their nonuniform cross-section to their mechanical properties. A further point is that, for both types of ber used, there is a tendency for composites cured at higher molding pressure to present corresponding higher strength values. This is due to the more effective impregnation of the bers by the resin, which certainly occurred as a higher pressure is applied during the matrix setting. However, the curves for both levels of molding pressure, Fig. 4a and b, fall approximately within the statistical error related to the

standard deviation. Consequently, one cannot be sure that for the molding pressures used in this work pressure has an actual inuence, but just a tendency to improve the composite strength. In fact, the molding pressure was observed to have only a secondary effect on the exural mechanical behavior for piassavapolyester composites [17] and chopped bagassepolyester composites [18]. In terms of practical interest, the coir ber composites may be regarded as valid alternatives to replace some conventional materials nowadays used by the building industry, and also as furniture. For example, the rigid composites with less than 50 wt% of coir bers can be tailored to have tensile strength above 10 MPa, Table 1, which is higher than that of a low-density wood particle board with 5.59.7 MPa [19]. Composites with amounts of coir bers higher than 50 wt%, by contrast, are exible and could be used in applications where structural resistance is not of importance. In fact, and in spite of their relatively low strength, Table 1, these composites are stronger than gypsum board [19] and can be used in panels or ceilings. Moreover, the fact that coir ber composites are impervious to humidity represents a clear advantage in comparison with the relatively brittle gypsum board, which deteriorates in contact with water. 4. Conclusions From the experimental results obtained, the following conclusions can be made:

 Random oriented coir berpolyester composites are

low-strength materials, but can be designed to have a set of exural strengths that enable their use as nonstructural building elements. The lack of an efcient reinforcement by coir bers is attributed to their low modulus of elasticity, in comparison with that of the bare polyester resin.

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 With the fabrication route used, two different products

were obtained, namely: rigid composites, for ber loading less than 50% wt, and agglomerates, when the ber loading was higher than 50% wt.

Acknowledgment The authors acknowledge the nancial support from the Brazilian Agency CNPq. References
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