| Summary: | The use of natural fiber composite has been widely promoted in many industries such as construction, automotive and even aerospace. Natural fibers can be extracted from plants that are abundantly available in the form of waste such as sunflower seed shells (SSS) and groundnut shells (GNS). These fibers were chosen as the reinforcement in epoxy to form composites. The performance of composites was evaluated following the ASTM D3039 and ASTM D790 for tensile and flexural tests respectively. Eight types of composites were prepared using SSS and GNS fibers as reinforcement and epoxy as the matrix with the fiber content of 20wt %. The fibers were untreated and treated with Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) at various concentrations (6%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) and soaking time (24, 48 and 72 hours). The treatment has successfully enhanced the mechanical properties of both composites, namely SSS/epoxy and GNS/epoxy composites. The SSS/epoxy composite has the best mechanical properties when the fibers were treated for 48 hours using 6% of NaOH that produced 22 MPa and 13 MPa of tensile and flexural strength respectively. Meanwhile, the treatment on groundnut shells with 10% sodium Hydroxide for 24 hours has increased the Flexural strength tremendously (53%), however no significant effect on the tensile strength. The same trend was also observed on the tensile and flexural modulus. The increase of 41% in flexural modulus after treatment with 10% NaOH for 24 hours was also the evidence of mechanical properties enhancement. The evidence of improved fiber and matrix bonding after fiber treatment was also observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SSS/epoxy composites performed better in tensile application, meanwhile the GNS/epoxy composites are good in flexural application. © BEIESP.
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