Effects of nanoclay on physical and dimensional stability of Bamboo/Kenaf/nanoclay reinforced epoxy hybrid nanocomposites

The objective of current work is to evaluate the density, void content, water absorption,thickness swelling and thermal expansion of non-woven bamboo mat (B)/woven kenaf mat(K)/nanoclay/epoxy hybrid nanocomposites. The natural fibers based hybrid nanocompos-ites were prepared by incorporation of montmorillonite (MMT), halloysite nanotube (HNT)and organically modified montmorillonite (OMMT) at 1 wt.% loading, through hand lay-uptechnique. Water absorption was investigated by soaking the samples with distilled water atroom temperature until saturation point and the thickness swelling was also measured asper standard. Thermomechanical analyser (TMA) was used to study the dimensional stabil-ity caused by temperature variation. Addition of nanoclay increase the density, reducedthe void content and suppress water uptake in all hybrid nanocomposites. B/K/OMMThybrid nanocomposites exhibit better dimensional stability with regards to water absorp-tions and thermal expansion as compare to B/K/MMT and B/K/HNT. The improvement canbe attributed by the uniformly dispersed and strong interfacial adhesion bonding betweenthe OMMT and epoxy matrix. The develop nanocomposites in this work can be utilized forbuilding and automotive application which required high dimensional stability property.