Characterization of epoxy resin based banana fiber reinforced composite with waste CD powder filler

Abstract

In this day and age, where everything is driven by technology, the useful lifespan of items and devices is becoming increasingly shorter, which results in an increasing amount of electronic trash. The number of compact discs (CDs) that are produced each year is in the billions, but millions of them are simply discarded. They are eventually disposed of in landfills or by open burning, both of which result in unneeded harm to our environment, as well as the waste of energy and the loss of important resources. Additionally, the field of natural composites has attracted a lot of attention recently due to the fact that these composites are simple to mould, economical, and friendly to the environment. People are becoming more and more interested in natural -reinforced polymer composites because of how well they work in regards to their mechanical properties, how well they resist chemicals, how cheap they are, and how light they are. Efforts have been made to reuse the waste CDs in powder form as a filler material that can be used in engineering applications. Banana fibre fabric, epoxy, and waste CD powder were used to fabricate the composite. Waste CD powder was added in 5%, 10% and 15% by weight of banana woven fiber. Mechanical properties are determined by subjecting the material to standard tests for tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength. Using a scanning electron microscope, the surface of the object is analysed for its morphology in addition to its mechanical properties. Adding 10% of CD filler give better results. The experiment showed that woven banana fiber, when combined with waste CD powder, can function quite well as reinforcements in an epoxy matrix. Even though the mechanical properties of these composites are lower than those of the glass–epoxy combination, they can still be used in situations where more strength is not needed.