Effects of accelerated weathering on degradation behavior of basalt fiber reinforced polymer nanocomposites
Hashim U.R.a, Jumahat A.a, Jawaid M.b, Dungani R.c, Alamery S.
a Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam, 40450, Malaysia
b Department of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM, Serdang, 43400, Malaysia
c School of Life Science and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, 40132, Indonesia
d Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This work aims to give insight on the effect of accelerated weathering, i.e., the combination of ultraviolet (UV) exposure and water spraying, on the visual and mechanical properties of basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) composites. The solvent exchange method, sonication and high shear milling technique were used to prepare the nanocomposite laminates. Three types of laminates were fabricated, i.e., unmodified BFRP, nanosilica modified BFRP and graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) modified BFRP composites with the total fiber loading of 45 wt.%. Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminate was also prepared for performance comparison purposes between the natural and synthetic fibers. The laminates were exposed to UV with a total weathering condition of 504 h using a Quantum-UV accelerated weathering tester. The weathering condition cycle was set at 8 h 60◦C UV exposure and 4 h 50◦C condensation. The discoloration visual inspection on the tested specimen was observed under the optical microscope. The obtained results showed that the UV exposure and water absorption caused severe discoloration of the laminates due to photo-oxidation reaction. The effect of weathering conditions on tensile and flexural properties of unmodified BFRP composites indicated that the UV exposure and water absorption caused reduction by 12% in tensile strength and by 7% in flexural strength. It is also found that the reduction in tensile and flexural properties of nanomodified BFRP composites was smaller than the unmodified system. It concluded from this work, that the mineral based composites (i.e., BFRP) has high potential for structural applications owing to its better properties than synthetic based composites (i.e., GFRP).
Author keywords
Accelerated weathering,Degradation behavior,Glass fiber reinforced polymer laminates,Performance comparison,Structural applications,Tensile and flexural properties,Ultraviolet exposure,Weathering conditions
Indexed keywords
Accelerated weathering,Basalt fiber reinforced polymer composites,Nanocomposites,Polymer,UV exposure degradation
Funding details
[{‘$’: ‘Funding: This research was funded by Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), grant number no: 600-IRMI/FRGS 5/3 (336/2019) and The APC was funded by Universiti Putra Malaysia.’}, {‘$’: ‘Acknowledgments: The Authors would like to thank Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam and Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia for the research support. The authors would like to extend their gratitude to King Saud University (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) for the funding of this research through Researchers Supporting Project number (RSP-2020/241).’}]