Investigation of mechanical, thermal and water absorption properties of flax fibre reinforced epoxy composite with nano TiO2 addition

The present study aims at exploring the influence of nano TiO2 in enhancing the mechanical, thermal and water absorption properties of the flax fibre reinforced epoxy composites. The composites were prepared using the compression moulding technique. Epoxy was modified using nano titanium dioxide (50 nm size) at a loading rate (percentage by weight of the composite) of 0%, 0.5%, 0.7% and 0.9% by mechanical stirring and sonication process. The morphological characterisation was done by Scanning electron microscopy and the structural properties by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results indicate a significant improvement in strength of the composite system with the addition of TiO2. The optimum weight percentage for maximum performance was obtained as 0.7. The increase in tensile, flexural, impact and interlaminar shear strength values were observed as 10.95%, 20.05%, 10.45% and 18.80% respectively. Water diffusion coefficient was reduced by 31.66% by the addition of nano particles.