Effect of biomass-biochar content on the erosion wear performance of biochar epoxy composites

Biomass waste processing with a potential to commercialization is always concern for achieving sustainable ecosystem. In the current work, biochar was extracted from the arhar stalks (AS) and bael shells (BS) biowaste which has carbon as major constituent. As a result, biochar in particle form has excellent mechanical and tribological properties and hence when combined with epoxy forms a composite with enhanced tribological properties. In this context, the biochar epoxy composites were prepared with three different compositions of 2, 4, and 6% wt, and characterized for adsorption and solid erosion wear studies. The adsorption studies conferred that BS biochar materials consist large Brunauer-Emmet-Teller surface area, that is, 294.3393 m(2)/g and pore volume of 0.13166 cm(3)/g comparative to AS biochar materials. It was observed from the results that BS based biochar epoxy composites displayed excellent enhancement in erosion wear resistance of about 52% comparative to pure epoxy that of AS at 2%. Alongside further increment in the composition of the biochar constituent to 4% exhibited semi ductile behavior with a peak wear rate at 45 degrees impact angle. Applications pertaining to the realized composites in the current work is expected to meet the aerospace and automotive industries in specific.

Automated summary

This study focuses on the preparation of biochar epoxy composites with 4% biochar content from arhar stalks and bael shells as bio-waste materials. The composites showed excellent tribological properties and wear resistance, making them suitable for aerospace and automotive industries.