Original Article
  • Influence of Organomodified Nanoclay on the Mechanical and Flammability behavior of Jute Fabric/Vinyl Ester Nanocomposites
  • M. Latif, M. N. Prabhakar, Gi-Beop Nam, Dong-Woo Lee, Jung-Il Song
  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon 51140, Korea
Abstract
Organo-montmorillonite (OMMT) has attracted much attention for fiber-reinforced polymer composites as a filler material due to high aspect ratio and low charge density. The present study focused on the fabrication of nanocomposites using Vinyl ester and Jute fabric as matrix and reinforcement respectively. The OMMT was uniformly dispersed in vinyl ester resin at 1, 2 and 3 wt%, loading through high speed mechanical stirrer at room temperature and further nanocomposites were manufactured through vacuum assisted resin infusion (VARI) technique. Effects of OMMT on the mechanical properties of vinyl ester/Jute composites were carefully investigated through tensile, bending and Izod impact tests, which revealed significant improvement in mechanical properties. The morphology of the nanocomposites after tensile test was investigated by SEM which affirmed that OMMT filled nanocomposites has improved interactions with the host matrix than the pure composites. Based on the nature and flame retardancy mechanism, the OMMT slightly improved the flammability property which was clearly explained by horizontal burning test.

Keywords: OMMT, Vinyl ester, Jute fabric, Mechanical properties

This Article

  • 2017; 30(5): 303-309

    Published on Oct 31, 2017