Fabrication and Characterization of Kenaf/Cocos Nucifera Sheath Reinforced CNT Modified Epoxy Composites

Abstract

As the world population continues to grow, so does the amount of garbage that people produce. On the go lifestyle requires easily disposable products , such as soda cans or bottles of water, but the accumulation of these products has led to increase amounts of plastics pollution around the world .As plastics is composed of major toxic pollutants, it has the potential to cause significant harm to the environment in the form of air , water, and land pollution. Hence we are going to reduce the usage of plastics by replacing it with the natural fiber. The fibers used are kenaf fiber , cocosnucifera sheath and carbon nano particles using various chemical treatment for the fiber and by having different composition. The kenaf fiber is chosen since it is available in large amount and the fiber obtained is twice the amount of jute , cotton etc. and the tensile strength is more in this fiber . And the cocosnucifera sheath also has higher mechanical strengths . the kenaf fiber is treated with NaOH chemical to further increase its strength. and both the fibers are reinforced with epoxy resin which is mixed with carbon nano tube particles which will again increase the strength of the composite . thus the composite is strong enough and can be used to replace the plastics.