Physical and Mechanical Properties of Acrylated Epoxidized Soybean Oil- Wheat Straw Composite

In recent years, plant oils usage as matrix in natural fiber reinforced polymer composites, has been considered because of increasing environmental concern. In the present research work, acrylated epoxidized soybean oil combined with maleic anhydride and styrene as a matrix and wheat straw flour as filler was used for making a relatively biodegradable composite. In order to find the optimum synthesis time of resin, during reaction of maleic anhydride with acrylated epoxidized soybean oil, three time level of 60, 90 and 120 min, polymer was prepared and cross link density was determined with “solvent swelling” method. The optimum synthesis time of resin was obtained 90 min. Afterwards, maleated acrylated epoxidised soybean oil was mixed with 25% of styrene and 60 mesh wheat straw flour in three weight ratio of 20, 30 and 40% manually. The combination of resin and wheat straw flour was poured in a steel mold and pressing was applied manually. The die was placed in an oven at temperature of 140oC for one hour. Infrared spectroscopy, Thermogravimetric analysis tensile and impact test was conducted to evaluate and analyze the physical and mechanical properties of the resulted composite. Infrared spectroscopy results showed ether bond formation between hydroxyl groups of wheat straw and carbonyl groups of resin. Water absorption test results showed no statistical difference between water absorption values of three loading of wheat straw till 144 hours of immersion, however at 168 hours of immersion, water absorption values were increased with increase of wheat straw loading. There was no statistical difference between thickness swelling values of composites with different wheat straw loading. With increasing wheat straw loading, tensile strength and modulus was increased significantly. Also the impact strength increased as an increase of wheat straw loading.