Development of Sustainable Thermo Acoustic Material from Residual Organic Wastes

Abstract

Non-destructive technique such as ultrasonic processing employed for surface modification of corn husk which changes the interfacial as well as skeletal arrangement in interlocking of fibres with polymer chain. Investigations were carried out on the organic waste obtained from the corn husk with characterization technique such as Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) has been employed for surface analysis and study of compositional change in the modified fibre and composite material. Tensile strength of single corn husk fibre before and after surface treatment was observed to be increasing from 332.57 MPa to 345.16 MPa which confirms the strong fibrillation due to surface treatment. Further acoustic performance of the composite reveals that treated composite has a potential to absorb 94% of sound which makes it a class - A type sound absorberas per ASTME 1154 standard. The enhanced physical, mechanical, acoustic and thermal properties of corn husk-epoxy composite confirm their suitability as potential smart sound-absorbing material.