DEVELOPMENT OF AVIAN FIBRES REINFORCED HIGH DENSITY POLYETHYLENE COMPOSITES FOR STRUCTURAL APPLICATION

Abstract

Despite the effectiveness and advantages of natural fibres from plants as reinforcement in the production of composite materials, it has been observed that natural fibres from plants have this limitation of high rate of absorption of moisture and this can weaken the properties of the composite that it will be used to reinforce. So there is need to divert attention into the use of other source of natural fibres such as avian fibres for the development of composites. In this research, brown and white avian fibres from chicken feathers were utilized to reinforced high density polyethylene for structural application. The avian fibres were extracted from brown chicken feathers by trimming and part of which was mercerized with 0.1 M concentration of NaOH and KOH solution, the fibres were also analyzed to ascertain their elemental, physiochemical properties using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, the crystallinity index using X-Rays diffraction (XRD) techniques and the morphology by utilizing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The untreated and mercerized fibres were varied from 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 wt% and used to reinforce the HDPE applying compression moulding techniques to produce the composite samples. The developed composite samples were characterized to ascertain their tensile and flexural properties in accordance with ASTM D3038M-08 and ASTM D7264M-07 standards respectively. The porosity, water absorption properties, morphology of the developed composite were analyzed. The results indicates that the mercerized avian fibres reinforced composite samples displayed the best mechanical properties in terms of flexural and ultimate tensile strength. It was also observed that NaOH treatment of avian fibres is more effective since it impacted the avian fibres with the best percentage crystallinity index. Also, composite samples that is made up of NaOH treated with 2 wt.% white avian fibres (WFTNa2) possessed the best mechanical properties; tensile strength (21.03 MPa), flexural strength (23.58 MPa) and specific strength (25.22 MPa/g/cm3) respectively. However, composite samples made up of NaOH treated 2 wt.% brown avian fibres (BFTNa2) displayed the best tensile modulus (735.55 MPa) while composite samples that is consist of KOH treated 2 wt.% white fibres (WFTK10) displayed the best flexural moduli (206.05 MPa). Low weight fraction aid the best enhancement of properties since 2 wt. % fibres content gave the best outcome in both tensile and flexural properties. This was also supported by the performance of these samples in water absorption test results where these samples gave good water repellant potential.