Olive fiber reinforced epoxy composites: Dimensional Stability, and mechanical properties

The processing of olive (Olea europaea L.) oil results in large quantities of solid waste consisting primarily of tree pruning remainders from olive trees growing. This has led to the idea of utilizing the leftovers into a value-added product; natural composite materials are utilized as alternatives to environmentally damaging synthetic materials. This study deals with the evaluation of the filling properties of the residue; olive tree small branch (OTS), olive tree big brunch (OTB) and olive tree leaves powder, for epoxy matrix biocomposite. Olive powder reinforced epoxy composite was processed at 40% filler loading. In this paper, the various forms of impacts of filler within epoxy on the physical and mechanical of epoxy composites were scrutinized by tensile, flexural, impact, thickness swelling, and water absorption tests. From the observation, it was discovered that the tensile and flexural strength of epoxy composite reinforced with OTS and OTB increased by about 27% and 47%, respectively. The impact strength values of OTS and OTB epoxy composites were 8.61, 7.88, and 5.97 J/m, respectively, while the virgin epoxy increased up to 16 J/m. The microstructure of the composites is also analyzed using scanning electron microscopy to analyze interfacial bonding.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the use of olive waste in epoxy-based biocomposites, finding that olive tree small branches and big branches were able to significantly increase the tensile and flexural strength of the composites. Additionally, scanning electron microscopy was used to analyze the microstructure of the composites.