Materials Today: Proceedings 44 (2021) 2093–2096

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Effect of glass fibre hybridization on the water absorption and thickness

of alkali treated kenaf-epoxy composites
Rajneesh Verma ⇑, Mukul Shukla, Dharmendra Kumar Shukla
Department of Mechanical Engineering, MNNIT Allahabad, Prayagraj, UP, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Natural and synthetic fibre reinforced hybrid polymer composites have attracted significant attention
Received 26 November 2020 due to their combined benefits of biodegradability and strength. Kenaf fibres have the potential to replace
Received in revised form 26 November 2020 synthetic fibres in polymer composites due to their excellent mechanical properties. However, their use
Accepted 6 December 2020
for high strength and water resistance applications are not found suitable due to their hydrophilic nature.
Available online 23 January 2021
The main aim of this study is to reduce the water absorption capacity of kenaf fibre composites through
alkali treatment and glass fibre hybridization. The continuous fibre, alkali treated, unidirectional kenaf-
Keywords:
glass–epoxy hybrid composites (K untreated, K Treated, G/K/G, G/K/G/K/G, G) were prepared by the hand
Hybrid composites
Kenaf fibre
lay-up method and their water absorption and thickness swelling behaviour studied. Thereafter the dif-
Alkali treatment fusion properties like diffusion coefficient (Dc), corrected diffusion coefficient (Dcc), sorption coefficient
Glass fibre (Sc) and permeability coefficient (Pc) of above composites were also calculated. The results show that
Water absorption alkali treated hybrid composites with stacking sequence G/K/G/K/G exhibited the lowest water absorp-
Thickness swelling tion and thickness swelling capacity in comparison to kenaf fibre composites. The alkali treated kenaf
fibre composites reduced the water absorption and thickness swelling capacity by 23% and 13% respec-
tively compared to untreated kenaf fibre composites while the glass fibre hybridization further reduced
the water uptake and thickness swelling by 35% and 32% respectively as compared to alkali treated kenaf
fibre composites.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
ence on Materials, Processing & Characterization.

1. Introduction is a solution to overcome these uncertainties [3,4]. Alternately,

Protection of our environment needs to develop biodegradable
materials so that the materials can degrade in a shorter time.
Industries like automobile and aviation, which are enormous users
of bulk materials containing long-lived materials need that these
materials degrade back into environment after their service life
[1]. Polymer composites reinforced with natural fibres (derived
from plant source) have the potential to become a degradable
material. Natural fibre composites have low tool wear rates, cost,
production energy requirements and safety and health risks, as
well as good thermal insulation and formability properties [2].
However, the usage of composites fully derived from natural fibres
seems impractical due to disadvantages of natural fibres like low
strength, high moisture absorption, low thermal stability and poor
wettability [3]. Hybridization of natural fibres with synthetic fibres
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rajneesh.s004@gmail.com (R. Verma).
hybridization can also reduce the use of synthetic fibres extracted
from petroleum based materials by incorporation of natural fibres.
The main drawback of natural fibres is their high water absorption
tendency. Structure and chemical composition (mainly cellulose
and hemicellulose) of natural fibres are the main reasons for their
hydrophilic nature [5,6].
Kenaf fibre is the most commonly used natural fibre due to its
abundance and excellent mechanical properties. Its higher cellu-
lose content and low micro-fibrillar angle provides several proper-
ties like weather resistance, abrasion resistance, damping,
toughness and high elongation at break [7]. The kenaf fibre is polar
in nature while the polymer matrix is non-polar which makes
them incompatible with each other, leading to high water absorp-
tion and degradation in mechanical properties. Surface modifica-
tion techniques are an effective way to increase the bondability
between fibres and matrix. In earlier research work the water
absorption behavior of kenaf/polyester composites [8], sisal/polye-
ster composites [9], and jute/polyester composites [10], was

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.12.181
2214-7853/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Materials, Processing & Characterization.
R. Verma, M. Shukla and Dharmendra Kumar Shukla Materials Today: Proceedings 44 (2021) 2093–2096

effectively decreased by alkali (NaOH) treatment. Many research Table 2

works have been carried out so far to investigate the effect of Properties of typical epoxy resin.

chemical treatment on water absorption behavior of kenaf fibre Properties Epoxy

composites. However, most of the work is done for short or woven 3
Density (g/cm ) 1.1–1.4
kenaf fibre composites. To the best of our knowledge, no work has Elongation (%) 1–6
been reported so far on the water absorption behaviour of contin- Tensile strength (MPa) 35–100
uous, unidirectional, NaOH treated kenaf fibres hybridized with Elastic modulus (GPa) 3–6
Compressive strength (MPa) 100–200
glass fibre in epoxy matrix. Hence in this study these composites Cure shrinkage (%) 1–2
have been studied for water absorption and thickness swelling Water absorption (24 h @ 20 °C) 0.1–0.4
behavior. Izod impact strength (J/m) 0.3

2.4. Water absorption behavior

2. Materials and methods

The water absorption behavior of kenaf-epoxy, glass–epoxy and

2.1. Materials
kenaf-glass–epoxy hybrid composites was conducted according to
the ASTM D 570–98 standard. The composite test specimens with
Epoxy (Araldite AW 106) and hardener (Aradur HY 951) were
dimension 20
20
3 mm3 were dried in an oven at 60° C for 12 h
purchased from Universal Enterprises Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India.
and weighed by a precise (0.001 g) weighing balance. The pris-
Kenaf fibres were supplied from U.P. Ban Store, Kanpur, Uttar Pra-
matic specimens were submerged in distilled water maintained
desh, India and the E-glass fibre was purchased from Goodwill
at a temperature of 23 ± 1 °C until a saturation point. The speci-
International, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. The kenaf fibres were
mens were removed and weighed immediately after each 24 h.
3–3.5 m long continuous fibres whereas E-glass fibres were plain
The specimens were wiped with tissue paper to remove water par-
weave woven fibres. Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) was procured from
ticles from the specimen’s surface.
M/S Molychem Mumbai, India. The properties of kenaf fibre, glass
The percentage increase in weight after immersion was calcu-
fibre and epoxy resin provided by suppliers are shown in Table 1
lated using the following equation (1):
and Table 2 [11].
Water uptake ð%Þ ¼ ðX2  X1Þ=X1
100 ð1Þ
2.2. Sodium Hydroxide treatment where x1 and x2 are weight of samples before water absorption (g)
and after water absorption (g).
Before the fabrication of hybrid composites, kenaf fibres were The various kinetics parameters like diffusion coefficient (Dc),
immersed for around 24 h into a chemical solution of 5% concen- corrected diffusion coefficient (Dcc), sorption coefficient (Sc), and
trated NaOH and distilled water at room temperature of 28° C. permeability coefficient (Pc) calculated using the following equa-
The solution was stirred manually after each half an hour during tions (2–5):
treatment. The treated fibres were washed with distilled water


2
for removal of excess NaOH. Further for removal of remaining h ðX2  X1Þ
Dc ¼ p pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð2Þ
Sodium Hydroxide the kenaf fibres were dipped in distilled water 4X1 t2  t1
with 1% acetic acid. Finally, the treated kenaf fibres were dried in
an oven at temperature of 45° C for 12 h [12–14].  2
h h
Dcc ¼ Dc 1 þ þ ð3Þ
l b
2.3. Manufacturing of kenaf/glass hybrid composites
X1
In all five different types of composites (pure kenaf fibre com- Sc ¼ ð4Þ
Xt
posites, alkali treated kenaf fibre composites, kenaf-glass hybrid
composites with sequence G/K/G, kenaf-glass hybrid composites Pc ¼ Sc
Dc ð5Þ
with sequence G/K/G/K/G and glass fibre composites) were fabri-
cated using the hand lay-up method by reinforcing fibres into where X1 and Xt are the percentages of water absorbed at satura-
the epoxy matrix with a constant fibre weight fraction of 30 wt%. tion time and at time t, respectively. Length, thickness and width
The epoxy resin and its hardener were mixed in the ratio of 10:1. of the specimen are represented by l, h, and b, respectively, and
A stainless steel mould with dimensions 30
20
0.3 cm3 was X1 and X2 are the percentages of water absorbed at time t1 and t2
coated with the mould release agent paraffin wax to prevent which are selected points in the initial linear portion of the water
mould adhesion and provide better surface finish. The epoxy cur- absorption curve.
ing was followed by cold compression using an 80 kg dead weight
at room temperature for 36 h to reduce the residual stresses. The 2.5. Thickness swelling
weighed quantity of fibres and resin were taken to fabricate the
hybrid composites to get desired weight fraction. Table 3 shows The thickness swelling behavior of kenaf-epoxy, glass–epoxy,
the weight and volume fraction of kenaf and glass fibres for various and kenaf-glass–epoxy hybrid composites was conducted accord-
composites. ing to the ASTM D 570–98 standard. Three samples of each type
of composites having dimensions of 20
20
3 mm3 were
immersed in distilled water until saturation. The specimens were
Table 1 removed and their thicknesses measured immediately after every
Physical and mechanical properties of kenaf and E-glass fibre. 24 h. The percentage increase in thickness swelling was calculated
Properties Kenaf fibre E-glass fibre using the following equation (6):
3
Density (g/cm ) 1.45 2.5 Thickness swelling ð%Þ ¼ ðh2  h1Þ=h1
100 ð6Þ
Elongation (%) 1.6 0.5
Tensile strength (MPa) 930 2000–3500 where h1 and h2 are the thicknesses of specimens before water
Elastic modulus (GPa) 53 70
absorption (g) and after water absorption (g).
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R. Verma, M. Shukla and Dharmendra Kumar Shukla
Table 3
Specifications of kenaf and glass fibres for various composites.
Composite Sequence Fibre Weight Fraction (%)
Kenaf
K (untreated) 30
K (treated) 30
G 0
G/K/G 20
G/K/G/K/G 15
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Water absorption behavior
The voids, chemical composition of fibre and fibre–matrix inter-
face adhesion are the parameters which govern the water absorp-
tion behavior of natural fibre reinforced composites [15]. For
measuring the water absorption behaviour the curve between
weight gain percentage and square root of immersion time for var-
ious kenaf-glass composites are shown in Fig. 1. The abrupt
increase in water absorption in the initial phase is clearly evident
in the figure after which the curve growth rate is steady until sat-
uration. The initial higher water absorption is shown by the slope
and found to be maximum for the kenaf fibre composites without
any treatment. The kenaf fibre composites without any treatment
show maximum water uptake equal to 5.3% after 24 h. At the same
time, water uptake reached for treated kenaf fibre composites,
hybrid composites with sequence G/K/G and G/K/G/K/G and Glass
fibre composites were 2.25%, 2% and 1.4% and 0.6% respectively.
The highest water uptake (5.3%) of the kenaf fibre composite was
due to the hydrophilic nature and higher cellulose content of kenaf
fibers. In case of untreated kenaf fibre composites water molecules
diffused rapidly into the micro-voids due to poor wettability. The
specimens reaches the saturation point as the time increases, the
untreated kenaf fibre and alkali treated kenaf fibre composites
reached their equilibrium in 18 days and 17 days respectively
while hybrid composites with sequence G/K/G and G/K/G/K/G
reached after 16 and 15 days respectively. The glass fibre compos-
ites reached equilibrium in 12 days.
Fig. 1. Weight gain vs square root of time curve of kenaf, glass and kenaf-glass
hybrid composites.
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Materials Today: Proceedings 44 (2021) 2093–2096
Fibre Volume Fraction (%)
Glass Kenaf Glass
0 25.8 0
0 25.8 0
30 0 16.6
10 17.9 5.1
15 13.7 7.8
At saturation stage, the water uptake of composites K (un-
treated), K (treated), G/K/G, G/K/G/K/G and G is 9.6%, 7.4%, 5.3%,
4.8% and 1.4% respectively. At the initial and saturation stages
the composites follow similar trend of water uptake. Alkali treated
kenaf fibre composites shows 23% lower water uptake than
untreated kenaf fibre composites while the glass fibre hybridiza-
tion further decreases the water uptake by 35% as compared to
the alkali treated kenaf fibre composites. The NaOH treatment
improves the fibre–matrix interface bonding due to reduction of
hemicellulose and waxy substances from the kenaf fibres [16,17].
3.2. Water diffusion mechanism
The diffusion properties like diffusion coefficient (Dc), corrected
diffusion coefficient (Dcc), sorption coefficient (Sc) and permeabil-
ity coefficient (Pc) of kenaf-glass composites are calculated accord-
ing to equations 2–5, with the help of Fig. 1. The diffusion
coefficient indicates the degree of movement of solvent molecules
into the structure of natural fibre composites. The corrected diffu-
sion coefficient describes the edge property [18]. The highest val-
ues of diffusion coefficient (Dc) for untreated kenaf fibre
composites is due to higher diffusion of water molecules in
micro-gaps of polymer chains and in between fibre and polymer
due to the capillary action of water molecules owing to poor wet-
ting [19]. In case of alkali treated kenaf fibre composites and hybrid
composites diffusivity reduces because of less water molecules
passing through the fibre–matrix interface. The hybrid composites
with stacking sequence G/K/G/K/G show lowest value of Dc, Dcc as
compared to other kenaf fibre composites due to an increase in
hydrophobicity by the combined effect of NaOH treatment and
glass fibre hybridization. Sc behaviour is opposite to Dc which
shows the amount of water dissolved in polymer. The composites
saturate earlier if the value of Sc is higher. The highest values of Sc
are seen for hybrid composite with sequence G/K/G/K/G followed
by K (treated) and K (untreated) composites, as expected. The com-
bined effect of Dc and Sc is shown by permeability coefficient (Pc).
The lowest values of permeability coefficient are seen for hybrid
composite as compared to kenaf fibre composites. Table 4 shows
the values of water absorption kinetics parameters.
3.3. Thickness swelling behavior
The cellulosic and polar kenaf fibres readily absorb the water
molecules and swell along the thickness in their composites. The
thickness swelling behavior with respect to time for kenaf, glass,
kenaf-glass hybrid composites are shown in Fig. 2. The results
show that the thickness swelling behaviour is proportional to their
water absorption. The percentage of thickness swelling is found to
be 15%, 13%, 11%, 8.8% and 4.5% for the composites K (untreated), K
(treated), G/K/G, G/K/G/K/G and G respectively. The lowest thick-
ness swelling of hybrid composite (G/K/G/K/G) compared to kenaf
fibre composites is due to enhancement of fibre–matrix adhesion
by reducing the voids between fibre–matrix interfaces, leading to
minimum diffusion of water molecules. The lowest thickness swel-
R. Verma, M. Shukla and Dharmendra Kumar Shukla Materials Today: Proceedings 44 (2021) 2093–2096

Table 4
Water absorption kinetics parameter of kenaf, glass, kenaf-glass hybrid composites.

Composites K (Untreated) K (Treated) GKG GKGKG G

Water uptake (%) at infinite time 9.61 7.43 5.33 4.77 1.35
Water uptake (%) at time t 5.26 2.25 1.98 1.44 0.60
Sorption coefficient, Sc 1.83 3.30 2.69 3.31 2.25
Diffusion coefficient, Dc
106 (mm2/s) 9.85 8.17 5.76 5.29 1.41
Corrected diffusion coefficient, Dcc,
106 (mm2/s) 13 10.78 7.60 6.98 1.86
Permeability coefficient, Pc
106 (mm2/s) 2.38 3.56 2.04 2.31 0.41

reduced the water uptake and thickness swelling by 35% and 32%
respectively, as compared to alkali treated kenaf fibre composites.
From this study, it can well be established that the hybridization is
an effective method to minimize water absorption capacity of
kenaf fibre composites and makes the kenaf fibre composites suit-
able for outdoor, harsh environments and high strength
applications.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-

cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to the Department of Mechanical Engineer-

ing, MNNIT Allahabad, India for providing composites fabrication
and testing facilities.

Fig. 2. Thickness swelling vs immersion time graph of kenaf, glass and kenaf-glass
hybrid composites.
ling is due to lowest values of diffusion and permeability coeffi-
cient which is evident in Table 4. Also, there is a 41% reduction
in thickness swelling for hybrid composite (G/K/G/K/G) as com-
pared to untreated kenaf fibre composite. The lowest thickness
swelling property of glass fibre composites is due to hydrophobic
nature of synthetic glass fibres.
4. Conclusions
In the present work, surface modification of kenaf fibre by
sodium hydroxide treatment is found to be a useful technique to
minimize the water absorption capacity. Also the glass fibre
hybridization effectively reduced the water absorption and thick-
ness swelling. The lowest values of diffusion coefficient, water
uptake and thickness swelling are found for hybrid composite (G/
K/G/K/G) when compared to composites reinforced with kenaf
fibres alone. The alkali treated kenaf fibre composites reduce the
water absorption and thickness swelling capacity by 23% and
13% respectively when compared to kenaf fibre composites with-
out any treatment while the glass fibre hybridization further
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