Mechanical and water absorption properties of municipal solid waste and banana fiber‐reinforced urea formaldehyde composites

In this study, hybrid composites of municipal solid waste (MSW)/banana fiber reinforced urea formaldehyde were prepared in different filler ratio. Mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, and impact strengths were investigated as a function of total volume fraction (Vf) of filler (MSW and banana fiber), relative volume fraction of MSW and banana fiber and its chemical modification. The mechanical properties were found to be high at 40% Vf of filler which indicates effective stress transfer between fiber and matrix. Then, composites with different volume ratios of MSW and banana fiber (100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, 0:100) are prepared by keeping total Vf of filler as 40%. It is observed that addition of banana fiber imparts better mechanical and thermal stability properties to composites. Also, banana fiber addition increased the water absorption properties of composites. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 34: 211–221, 2015