A research team from Russia, India and Thailand has developed a technology for manufacturing a reinforcement composite from waste coconut leaf sheath. When reinforced with a phenol-formaldehyde composite, the material is appropriate for high-demand applications like road construction and rail and airplane interiors as well as housing.
“The superior properties of composite made of natural fibers are driven especially by a good interfacial bonding at the interface of fiber and matrix,” says Sergey Gorbatyuk, co-author of the study, Professor of the Department of Engineering of Technological Equipment at NUST MISIS. “To obtain it, the natural fibers, which belong to hydroxyl groups containing lignin and cellulose are generally chemically modified. By using chemical or surface modification, it is possible to improve the degree of interlocking of at the interface of fiber with a matrix, which results in excellent resistance to failure of the materials.”
The findings were published recently in Polymer Composites.