Mechanical Behaviour of Jute/ZrO2 Based Polyester Composites at Microstructural Scale.

Alkali treated jute fibre incorporated silanized ZrO₂ based unsaturated polyester composites were synthesized using compression moulding technique. The filler loading was adopted with a progressive wt. %, of 5, 15, 25, 35 and 45 respectively. These samples were further subjected to structural investigation using scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction technique to observe the morphological features and crystalline nature of the matrix. The mechanical characterization was accomplished at the microstructural length scale from macro to submicron range. It was observed that the composite with 35 wt. % filler loading resulted in the best properties among the lot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]