A recyclability study of bagasse fiber reinforced polypropylene composites

Natural fiber reinforced composites are gaining attention nowadays due to their low cost, biodegradable characteristics, lower density and comparable mechanical properties with synthetic fibers reinforced composites. As the recyclable properties of these composites are still not fully explored and this could be the reason that these are not much used in domestic and other applications to their full potential. In the current experimental investigation, the effects of mechanical recycling on the properties of bagasse fiber reinforced polypropylene composites have been studied. Tensile properties, crystallinity and aspect ratio exhibits an increase, while flexural properties decrease with each recycling step. No significant change in thermal behavior has been detected even after 5 cycles but a slight increase in the hardness has been observed. SEM images confirmed the change in aspect ratio due to crushing of fibers as well as fiber fracture became more dominant after each recycling step.