Experimental Investigation on Mechanical, Thermal, Viscoelastic, Water Absorption, and Biodegradability Behavior of Sansevieria Ehrenbergii Fiber Reinforced Novel Polymeric Composite with the Addition of Coconut Shell Ash Powder

This study aimed to investigate the effect of addition of carbonized coconut shell powder on the mechanical properties, biodegradability, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and water absorption properties of Snake Grass Fiber (SGF)/epoxy composites. The hand layup method was employed to produce the samples, and a 40 wt% of SGF with 30 mm optimum length reinforced with epoxy resin is taken as base material. In addition, Coconut Shell Ash (CSA) powder was used as the filler varying from 2.5 to 10 wt%. The results show that mechanical characteristics, such as tensile and flexural strength, are enhanced with the addition of CSA up to 5 wt%, and then the phenomenon has been changed. However, the impact and hardness values increased with an increase in the CSA filler content up to 10 wt%. Thermogravimetric analysis studies have reported that 10 wt% of CSA addition shows a maximum char yield of 16.56%. The biodegradability of the composite was proportional to the amount of CSA reinforcement. Meanwhile, composites shows reduced thermal conductivity with the addition of CSA. Since, the thermal diffusivity increased with the addition of CSA. Scanning electron microscope analysis was performed to identify the reason for the decrease in the mechanical properties of the specimens (beyond 5 wt% of CSA addition) through failure mode analysis.