Investigation on Mechanical and Water Transport Properties of Papaya–Banana Fiber Based Hybrid Epoxy Composites Reinforced with Waste Matchsticks Particles

Natural composites attract the industrialists due to its low cost with environment friendly uniqueness. Waste match sticks are gathering as garbage in match industries and dumped with usual wastes. Hence, the conversion of it into useful product could lead to reduction of garbage and lay a path for green environment. In this current study, natural composites were fabricated by means of the waste match stick (MS), and freely available banana and papaya fibers. Compression molding technique was followed to make hybrid material using banana and papaya fibers by equal proportion and the resin to fiber ratio was kept as 70:30. Further, the waste match sticks were converted into particle format and reinforced with hybrid composite by varying the volume fractions as 2.5wt%, 5wt%, 7.5wt% and 10wt%. The mechanical and water transport properties of fabricated composites were examined. Results indicated that the waste match stick particle assisted to progress material’s strength. The 7.5wt% waste match stick particle was optimum to show good mechanical properties. The BP/7.5wt% MS material showed the tensile and flexural strengths of 78.5 MPa and 93.8 MPa respectively. Further, the similar composite displayed slightest water uptake behavior (8.5% at 15 days time period) and little loss of mass (16% at 60 days time period) during water absorption and bio-degradation tests respectively. Hence, it was concluded from this research that the waste match sticks could be used to make the natural composites as provided good strength, decreased water absorption and bio-degradation of composite. Further, the BP/7.5wt% MS material could be an appropriate material for engineering applications such as automobile, aero, sports and marine for structural applications due to its superior mechanical strengths. This research introduces an innovative approach to composite manufacturing by utilizing waste match sticks as reinforcement and locally sourced banana and papaya fibers, potentially creating highly economical composite materials from industrial waste.