The effects of sintering on the properties of epoxy composites reinforced with chicken bone-based hydroxyapatites

In this study, the effect of sintering of the chicken bone particles (CBPs) was investigated in terms of the thermal, structural, morphological and mechanical properties of the epoxy bio-composites. This study exploits the potential of hydroxyapatite-based renewable reinforcements to produce high-performance bio-composites. The heat treated, and untreated CBPs was used to modify the epoxy matrix. The thermal properties of the epoxy-based bio-composites were investigated through thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The mechanical properties were evaluated using a universal testing machine, pendulum impact system. The structural and morphological properties of the bio-composites were observed through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Results showed that reinforcing of sintering chicken bone improved the decomposition and glass transition temperature of the epoxy/CBPs bio-composites by 7 degrees C in both cases. Result analysis showed that the tensile strength of the epoxy/CBPs bio-composites increased by 56.5, 69.5 and 34.8%, respectively, at 5, 10 and 15 wt% loading of CBPs and increased by 65.2% at 10 wt% loading of treated CBPs (TCBPs). The flexural strength also improved by 16, 275, 225 and 283.3% at 5, 10 and 15 wt% loading of CBPs and at 10 wt% loading of TCBPs, respectively, compared to the neat epoxy. This shows that the sintering particles lead to improving the thermal stability while untreated particles lead to improving tensile strength. The results show that the epoxy matrix and CBPs and are structurally compatible and is expected to develop renewable eco-friendly bio-composites with high performance.