Abstract:

The effect of cure temperature on the mechanical properties and glass transition temperature of snail shell and coconut shell particles reinforced polyester matrix composites was investigated in this study. The purpose of the study was to determine if cure temperature has an effect on the mechanical properties of these polyester composites Two batches of polymer composites with snail shell and coconut shell particles reinforcements of varied proportions from 5 – 25 wt. % were prepared by casting method. One batch of samples was cured at room temperature while the other batch was heated to 1500 C and held for four hours. All the samples were subjected to tensile, impact, flexural, hardness and glass transition tests. Mechanical tests revealed that the samples cured at 1500 C exhibited better mechanical properties than the samples cured at room temperature. This could be as a result of better crosslinking within the post cured polyester composites. The micrographs revealed a fairly even dispersion of the reinforcements within the matrix which contributed to the enhancement of the mechanical properties of the composites. The coconut shell and snail shell particles reinforced polyester composites at 20 wt. % and 10 wt. % reinforcements exhibited the highest resistance to elongation with values of 230.01 MPa and 193.64 MPa respectively. The snail shell particles reinforced composite and the coconut shell particles reinforced composite exhibited the highest impact energy of 5.87 J and 5.40 J respectively at 15 wt. % reinforcement. The snail shell and coconut shell particles reinforced composites exhibited high hardness of 143.26 BHN and 130.53 BHN respectively. The improved properties exhibited by these composites are an indication of their suitability for engineering applications.

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