Analysing the Characterisation of Alkali Treated Coir Fibre Composites

Polymeric materials reinforced with synthetic fibres such as glass provide advantage of high stiffness and high strength to weight ratio. Despite these advantages, the widespread use of synthetic fibre-reinforced polymer composite has a tendency to decline because of their high-initial cost and most importantly their adverse environmental impact. In this work, four different composites are prepared with untreated coconut fibres, NaOH mercerized coconut fibres, KOH mercerized coconut fibres and CSM - glass fibres. Lot of studies is done earlier on NaOH mercerized coconut fibre composites. But, no studies are done specifically on KOH mercerized coconut fibre composites. So, KOH mercerized coconut fibre composites are prepared in this study. General purpose polyester resin is used for preparing all the composites. The mechanical properties of composites are studied using flexural test, impact test and tensile test. The mechanical properties of KOH mercerized coconut fibre composites are studied and compared with the mechanical properties of NaOH mercerized coconut fibre composites, untreated coconut fibre composites and CSM - glass fibre composites.