Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Horn Fibre Reinforced Polypropylene Composites

A new particle-reinforced composite has been developed using defatted horn fibre (HF) and polypropylene (PP). Physical, mechanical, thermal and micro-structural properties of HF/PP composites with varying fibre wt% (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) have been characterized and compared with the properties of pure PP and pure HF. Mechanical properties of pure HF are found to be very high compared to pure PP and HF/PP composites. Compared to pure PP, HF/PP composites show an increase in, tensile yield strength slightly, tensile modulus by 15.74%, flexural strength by 16.95% and flexural modulus by 59.69% and decrease in ultimate tensile strength by 15.03%, percentage elongation at break and impact strength to a considerable amount. Melt flow index for HF/PP composites decreases with increase in fibre content. Thermogravimetric analysis reveals that there is an increase in thermal stability of HF/PP composites with increase in fibre content. SEM micrograph shows that there is good compatibility between HF particles and PP. Among the HF/PP composites, composite with 15 wt% of HF particles has optimum results. The horn and HF/PP composites with low density and good properties can find application in fields like automobile, computers, construction, house ware, etc.