High energy absorbent Polyester/Natural Kenaf based polymer micro-composites

The brittleness behavior of thermosetting composites has resulted in limitations in their wider applications.  The said composites brittleness even becomes more critical upon the addition of reinforcing materials. Moreover, the use of materials recyclable to the environment in the use of composites has been considered to address challenges regarding bio-aspects, nevertheless die to the incompatibility of natural reinforcements with the polymer phase, the addition of natural fibers leads to the decrease in absorption energy and impact resistance of composites. The present study aims at the materials and the fabrication technique of polyester micro-composites reinforced with natural kenaf fiber up to 20 wt% laminated aligned or crossed perpendicularly, which has resulted in the increase in the impact resistance of the base polymer by 2400% and the energy absorption capability by 40% improvement.  The observed enhancement is correlated to the increase in contribution of the natural fiber phase in load transfer and energy absorption aligned the fiber direction during the fabrication process and the improvement in the resin penetration within the kenaf fibers which also leads to the penetration ability of resin within the layers of high fiber ratio in this classification of composites.