Natural fibres-based polymers: Part I-Mechanical analysis of Pine needles reinforced biocomposites

Lack of resources and increasing environmental pollution has evoked great interest in the research of materials that are friendly to our health and environment. Polymer composites fabricated from natural fibres is currently the most promising area in polymer science. Keeping in view the various advantages of natural fibres, in current series of green composites a study on natural fibre reinforced polymer composites has been made. This paper presents the results of an experimental series designed to assess the possibility of Pine needles as reinforcing material in polymer composites. First of all, urea-formaldehyde resin was synthesized and optimized by evaluating its mechanical properties. Optimized resin was reinforced with employing Pine needles of different dimensions such as particle reinforcement, short fibre reinforcement and long fibre reinforcement. Experimental results obtained shows that mechanical properties such as tensile strength, compressive strength and wear resistance of UF resin increases to a considerable extent when reinforced with Pine needles. Further it has been observed that particle reinforcement is more effective as compared to short fibre and long fibre reinforcement. These results suggest that Pine needles can be potential candidates for use in natural fibre reinforced polymer composites. Thermal and morphological studies of these composites have also been carried out.