Initial Study of New Bio-based Epoxy in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite Panel Manufactured by Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Moulding.

This research paper is about carbon fiber reinforced composite panels with novel bio-based epoxy derived from Malaysian crude Jatropha oil (Epoxidized Jatropha Oil) which is mixed with synthetic epoxy as matrix. Its manufacturability performances were then verified by tensile test, flexural test and burnt off test. Two composite panels (fiber carbon with 100 wt. % of synthetic epoxy and fiber carbon with 18 wt. % bio-epoxy blend with synthetic epoxy) were fabricated by vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding. Samples were cut according to respective ASTM dimensioning and were tested. It was found that the new composite panel performed well in manufacturability aspect with fiber volume fraction achieved was around 40 - 45%. Although its tensile and flexural performances are a bit lower but comparable, we could conclude that the novel bio-epoxy as matrix in fiber carbon reinforcement could be fabricated by using this process for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]