Study on Water Absorption and Impact Properties of Vegetal Composites Material: Composite Structures
The delamination and fibers pull out have been the main factors failure application of natural fibers in various engineering fields. To address these problems, particles reinforced composites are the promising candidate. The present paper investigates on vegetal particles (date palm seed particles/DPSp) and applies it as composites material reinforced unsaturated polyester (USP). The influence of alkali treatment on the surface morphology and structure of DPSp was investigated. They investigated by SEM and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) mapping. The water absorption results showed directly proportion with the particles loading as the relative increases were 0.645% and 7.345% for 10 wt% and 40 wt% of DPSp content, respectively. In addition, the water absorption ability of the composites showed low value comparing with many natural fibers. In addition, the fracture toughness of the composites was studied. Overall, addition of the proposed DPSp particles may be opens a new avenue to exploit the utilized natural cheap material to produce a green composite.