Abstract:

A study on the effect of alkaline treatment on the mechanical properties of cotton fabric reinforced epoxy composites is presented in this paper. One hour treatment of cotton fabric was performed using three different concentrations of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution. 1% NaOH treated fabric reinforced composites exhibited maximum improvement in tensile strength. It was concluded that the said NaOH concentration improves interfacial adhesion between the cotton fabric and epoxy resin. Moreover the morphology of the fracture surface, evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), indicated that surface treatment can yield better adhesion between the fabric and matrix, demonstrating the effectiveness of the treatment. The dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) results revealed that alkali treated (1% and 3% NaOH) fabric composites exhibit higher storage moduli and glass transition temperature (Tg) values as compared to the untreated fabric composites. However, for all the composite specimens, the storage modulus decreased with increasing temperature (25 - 100 °C). Tg values of 50.9, 56.7, 52.8 and 37.7 °C were recorded for the untreated and (1%, 3% and 5%) treated composites, respectively. The tan δ values decreased for all the composites with increasing temperature, indicating enhanced interactions between the polymer matrix and fabric reinforcement.