Effects of Accelerated Aging on Treated Date Palm Fiber Reinforced Polybutylene Succinate Composites

In the present work, the effects of an accelerated aging process on the rheological and mechanical behavior of enzymatically treated date palm fiber reinforced poly butylene succinate (PBS) composite materials were evaluated. The bio-composite compounds were manufactured by twin-screw extrusion and, then, injected to obtain normalized simples. These samples were then exposed to UV radiation in an accelerated aging chamber for 100 h. The rheological analyses were conducted using multi-wave tests, by sweeping the frequency. The composite’s mechanical behavior was evaluated through tensile tests in order to determine any physical degradation of the material after aging. The results showed an enhance-ment of the composite stability imparted by the addition of the fibers, and particularly the treated ones, into the PBS matrix. Tensile tests revealed better resistance of the mechanical characteristics, after artificial aging, by adding raw fibers to the pure polymer. Compared to the composites based on untreated fibers, those having modified ones exhibited better rigidity, with almost a 40% improvement, after the same aging period and under the same charge rate.