Experimental Analysis of Hybrid Composite Sheets: Epoxy Resin Reinforced with Date Palm Fiber and Spent Alumina Catalyst

Recently, manufacturers and engineers have increasingly focused on developing natural fiber-reinforced composites, which often outperform synthetic fiber-based composites in various aspects. This study involves the preparation of laminated composite using date palm fiber (DPF) combined with LY556 Epoxy resin and HY951 Hardener as the matrix material, and spent alumina catalyst (SAC) as the reinforcement. The research emphasizes the fabrication and characterization of the mechanical as well as morphological behavior of SAC-blended DPF/Epoxy resin-based hybrid composite laminates. The composite laminates were fabricated using the conventional hand lay-up technique, and the resulting samples underwent comprehensive analysis. Scanning electron microscopy revealed minimal fracturing and strong interfacial bonding between the fiber and matrix in the DPF/Epoxy composite samples with various fiber orientations. The elemental composition, including weight content, atomic content, and net intensity, was analyzed through energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The samples exhibited good moisture resistance. Notably, samples with higher SAC content demonstrated increased tensile strength. The DPF composite sample with 35 g of SAC and cross-directional fiber orientation achieved a maximum tensile strength of 39.93 MPa, surpassing the performance of other samples composition.