International Journal of Materials Sciences

In recent years, the development of new composite material derived from natural fiber and thermoplastic blends have grown markedly and due to eco friendly nature. The natural fibers like cotton, coir, sisal, jute have attracted the attention of scientists and technologists for many application in packaging low cost housing and other structures, since they possesses better strength, good resistance to fracture and compared to conventional wood based composites. Among the entire natural fiber reinforcing material areca appears to be a promising material because it is relatively inexpensive and availability in areca plantations and is biodegradable. Currently much of the research work was centered on the development of areca composite since it has higher strength and favorable mechanical properties required in many applications.

In the present paper, areca fiber composite boards were prepared using randomly distributed fiber with phenol formaldehyde. Different composite boards were prepared with 500gm of areca with 75, 100, 150, 200, 250 & 300gm of phenol formaldehyde. A composite board is designated as PF 100, for a board prepared with 500gm of areca fiber 100gm of PF and similarly for other boards. Thoroughly mixed fibers and resins were pressed in hydraulic hot press at a recommended temperature of 140 degree centigrade and pressure of 2 MPa for 30 minutes. The mechanical properties like tensile test, static bending test, moisture absorption, moisture content, swelling thickness and biodegradable test were tested as per IS standards. Specimen PF 300 shows maximum tensile load 1757 N and static bending load of 320 N. moisture content and moisture absorption decreases with increase in PF content.