Research Article
Mubashirunnisa, A , Vijayalaks
Abstract
Natural fiber reinforced composites have attracted the attention of research community mainly because they are turning out to be an alternative solution to the ever depleting petroleum sources. Various natural fibres such as jute, sisal, palm, coir and banana are used as reinforcements. In this paper, banana fibres and glass fibers have been used as reinforcement. The aim of this present study was to develop a polymer made up of banana/glass fiber reinforced nanochitosan composites. The nanochitosan was prepared using polyphosphoric acid and composites of nanochitosan were prepared with short fibers of banana and glass in the presence of crosslinking agent glutaraldehyde. The prepared glass and banana fiber reinforced nanocomposites were characterized using different analytical tools such as FT-IR, XRD, TGA and DSC. The FT-IR studies reveal the formation of nanocomposites. The observed results of TGA and DSC show that the addition of glutaraldehyde along with the nanosized chitosan has increased the thermal stability.The XRD results indicate the change in crystallinity of nanocomposites