MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF BIOCOMPOSITE MATERIALS BASED ON EPOXY EPIKOTE 828 REINFORCED WITH LOOFAH FIBERS

Abstract

In this work, we determined the mechanical properties of biocomposite materials based on epoxy epikote
828 reinforced with loofah fibers at concentrations of 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%. The results show that the tensile
strength and izod impact strength are improved when using loofah fibers to reinforce epoxy resin. Specifically,
the tensile strength and izod impact strength of the biocomposite material reached the highest values of
45.6MPa and 9.1kJ/m2
, respectively, at a content of 15% reinforced loofah fiber. Flexural strength decreased
slightly when reinforcing loofah fiber and reached the smallest value of 73.9MPa at 15% loofah fiber content.
Structural characteristics of biocomposite materials were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) methods. The results show that the unreinforced loofah fiber sample has
a smooth, flat fracture surface, indicating brittle failure. In contrast, samples with loofah fiber reinforcement have
a rough fracture surface, clearly revealing the loofah fibers that have a reinforcing function in the structural
surface. This demonstrates that the presence of loofah fiber reinforcement improves the structure of the
biocomposite material.