A Critical Comprehension of Effect of Surface Treatment on Physical and Mechanical Properties of Date Palm – Stem Fiber Embedded Epoxy Composites

Polymer composites with natural fibers as reinforcements are being customarily used for a wide range of engineering applications due to their exemplary characteristics like low density, ease of procurement and superior mechanical properties but natural fibers are usually hydrophilic. An exploration into a class of natural fiber composite like date palm-stem fiber composite was hence undertaken to venture into manufacture of a new class of material which has excellent water resistant properties and can be used in diverse application areas. The effect of loading of the date palm-stem fiber on the physical attributes along-with mechanical aspects were investigated under the present research and necessary efforts were made to study about the surface treatment of short fiber based epoxy composites. The treated fibers and their characteristics were observed and compared with the untreated ones. Composites of various compositions of different amounts of fiber loading were fabricated by simple hand lay-up technique and it was observed that the effect of surface treatment of fibers on the overall properties of composites was pretty significant. Furthermore, lower water absorption rate was accomplished with date palm-stem and glass fiber-epoxy based hybrid composites.