Optimization and statistical analysis on mechanical, thermal, wear and water-absorption characteristics of fragrant screwpine fiber-reinforced polymer biocomposites

A novel biocomposite material has been developed by reinforcing indigenous natural fragrant screwpine (FSP) fiber with polyester resin. Different sets of biocomposite materials are prepared using untreated and chemically treated (3%, 5%, 7% and 9% by weight of NaOH and sodium lauryl sulfate) FSP fibers for different concentration, time (1 h and 3 h) and fiber lengths (3 mm and 9 mm). The tensile, flexural and impact strength of the developed composites samples were studied and optimized through Design of Experiments (DOE). The NaOH (3% for 3 h) treated 9 mm fiber length FSP fibers reinforced polymer composite (FSPFRPC) shows a better tensile (53.17 MPa), flexural (65.84) and impact (21 J/m) strength than the untreated and other chemically treated FSP polymer composites. The strong bonding of the modified augmentation material with the matrix was analyzed from the sample images obtained from scanning electron microscopy. The DOE has been also employed to provide mathematical equation for optimization purpose. The heat resilience of the FSPFRPC samples was interrogated through thermogravimetric—derivative thermogravimetric analysis (TGA-DTG) to appreciate its performance under higher ambient temperature conditions which is revealed as 192 °C. The pin-on-disk experimentation helped to understand the wear behavior of the composite samples with minimum mass loss of 0.125 g. The water-absorption analysis performed on the composite samples revealed its behavior under humid conditions.