Comparative Analysis of Mechanical Characteristics of Sisal Fibre Composite with and without Nano Particles

The Alkali (NaOH) treated sisal fibres were used as unique reinforcement to attain the composites with self-synthesized epoxy resin as matrix. The fibres were arranged in randomly oriented manner. The compression moulding was used to prepare the composites. The sol-gel method was used to prepare Zinc Oxide Nano Particles (ZnO-NPs) and Zirconium Oxide Nano Particles (ZrO2-NPs). The 0.5wt% of Nanoparticles (NPs) were added to fabricate different composites. There are three types of composites have prepared as follows (1) Plain Sisal Fibre (PSF) composite, (2) ZnO-NPs activated Sisal Fibre(ZnO-NPs SF) composite and ZrO2-NPs activated Sisal Fibre (ZrO2-NPs SF) composite. The mechanical properties such as the tensile, flexural, impact and hardness of all these three composites have evaluated and compared. It was found from the experimental investigation that the ZrO2-NPs SF composite exhibits superior mechanical properties than the ZnO-NPs SF and PSF composites. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.