Tensile, flexural and impact behavior of Tamarind seed (Bio-waste) particulate reinforced polymer composite

Abstract

Designing of lightweight materials in house hold, construction, automobile and aerospace sectors is attracting researchers to replace conventional materials. In this regard environment friendly materials are the focus point. Development of bio composites is one of the solutions for this. In this paper, effort has been made to design and develop a material from Tamarind seed (a biowaste). To fulfill the objective Tamarind seed particulate composite of varying weight fraction (10, 20, 30 and 40 wt.%) has been fabricated with epoxy as the matrix material. The characterization study of tamarind seed particulate was carried out using Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis to find its suitability as reinforcement material. Tensile, flexural and impact behavior of the developed composites has been carried out as per ASTM standard. Morphology of fractured samples were carried out with SEM to ascertain the failure behavior.