Chemical Modification on Woven Jute and Nonwoven Wet-Laid Glass Fiber Sheet Reinforced Poly-(ε-Caprolactone) Composites

Abstract

High-moisture regains nature of cellulosic fibers considered one of the critical drawbacks for jute-based applications. To minimize this by developing better interfacial adhesion, a hydrophobic nonwoven wet-laid glass fiber sheet used the woven jute fabric in this experiment. For this purpose, woven jute fabric was categorized into untreated, silane, alkali, and alkali-silane combined treatment then compounded with the solution of polycaprolactone (PCL). Fabrication of composites performed the following sandwich method based on different hot-pressing time with temperature for detecting a prominent fabrication parameter. Surface treated jute fibers characterized using FTIR spectroscopy. Hence, the mechanical and thermal properties of composites were investigated to find the consequence of chemical treatments into woven jute fabric. Alkali-silane combined chemical treatments resulting in improved 48.38% of tensile strength over untreated optimized composites. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) used for displaying interfacial adhesion between fiber and polymer matrix. Besides, further investigation demonstrated due to the combined chemical treatment of alkali-silane optimized composites significantly enhanced the thermogravimetric (TGA) stability in contrast to other composites.