Studies on mechanical characterization and water resistance of glass fiber/thermoplastic polymer bionanocomposites

This experimental work is aimed at studying the performance of rice husk flour/glass fiber reinforced high density polyethylene hybrid nanocomposites. To meet this objective, the nanoclay was compounded with high density polyethylene (HDPE), rice husk flour (RF), glass fiber, and coupling agent in an internal mixer; then, the samples were fabricated by injection molding. The concentration was varied from 0 to 6 per hundred compounds for nanoclay and from 0 to 15% for glass fiber, individually. The amount of coupling agent was fixed at 2% for all formulations. The morphology, water absorption, thickness swelling, and mechanical properties of nanocomposites were evaluated as a function of nanoclay and glass fiber contents. The results indicated that both modulus and strength were improved when glass fibers were added to the composites system but impact strength and moisture absorption further decreased with the increase of glass fiber content. The morphology of the nanocomposites has been examined by using X‐ray diffraction. The morphological findings revealed that the nanocomposites formed were intercalated. The mechanical analysis showed that the biggest improvement of the tensile and flexural modulus and strengths can be achieved for the nanoclay loading at 4 per hundred compounds. However, further increasing of the loading of nanoclay resulted in a decrease of impact strength. Finally, it was found that addition of nanoclay reduced the water absorption and thickness swelling of the composites. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012