Cellulosic Fillers Extracted from Argyreia Speciose Waste: A Potential Reinforcement for Composites to Enhance Properties

The growing world population and urge of the improved living standard has increased the demand of materials leading to higher post-consumer waste. This paper investigates the potential of using plant waste (yard cutting) as reinforcement for composite materials, which is either landfilled or burnt. The yard cutting of a creeper plant, Argyreia speciose (local name Tezgam) plant was used for fiber extraction, by water retting. The extracted fibers were treated with an alkali solution and then converted to powder (particle) form by ball milling. The particles obtained, after milling, were used as a reinforcement to fabricate composite material along with jute fabric obtained from waste packing bags. The mechanical properties (tensile, flexural, and impact) of these waste material hybrid composites were investigated. It was found that the filler reinforced composites exhibited higher strength as compared to the others. The addition of fillers also enhanced the modulus of the material, both in tensile and 3-point bending mode. These fillers loaded composites were also able to withstand the maximum force for a longer period during the drop weight impact test. Hence, agricultural waste can be effectively used to develop a value-added product with enhanced performance properties.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the potential of using plant waste as reinforcement for composite materials and demonstrates the feasibility of this method through experiments, which is significant for reducing post-consumer waste and enhancing material performance.