Effect of chitosan on mechanical and thermal properties of novel aloe vera fiber reinforced composites

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the effect of chitosan on mechanical and thermal properties of aloe vera fiber reinforced composites. In this work, we have fabricated the five different composites namely pure polyester composite (SP), pure aloe vera fiber composite (S0), 1 wt.% of chitosan filled aloe vera fiber composite (S1), 3 wt.% of chitosan filled aloe vera fiber composite (S3), and 5 wt.% of chitosan filled aloe vera fiber composite (S5) through simple hand layup method and investigated the mechanical and thermal properties. From the results, it is concluded that, 3 wt.% of chitosan filled aloe vera fiber reinforced composite was performed well in all the testing and it is suitable for various engineering applications such as automobile, aeronautical and marine. SEM analysis shows good adhesion behavior between fiber and matrix with the addition of chitosan. Further, 3 wt.% of chitosan can be added in natural fiber based polymer composites to enhance mechanical properties of the composites.