Mechanical and thermal properties of snail shell particles-reinforced bisphenol-A bio-composites

This work was carried out to investigate the possible application of the snail shell particles (SSPs) as reinforcement which contains around 95% calcium carbonate. The main objective of this work was to study the effect of heat treatment on the mechanical and thermal properties of the epoxy/SSPs composites. The composites were investigated by mechanical testing, thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The structural and morphological properties of the bio-composites were analyzed through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Results demonstrate that the tensile strength of the composites increased by 21, 56 and 34%, respectively, at the loading of 5, 10 and 15 wt% of SSPs and further increased by 17% for reinforcing of 10 wt% of heat-treated SSPs. The flexural strength of the composites also increased by 116, 291, 233 and 191% for loading of 5, 10, 15 wt% SSPs and 10 wt% of sintered SSPs, respectively, compared to neat epoxy. It was found that the glass transition temperature and decomposition temperature of the composites significantly improved for incorporating SSPs into the epoxy. The onset temperature of the degradation of the composites was increased maximum by 28 °C for the addition of 10 wt% of the sintered SSPs compared with the neat epoxy. The overall mechanical and thermal properties of the composites indicate that the SSPs can be a promising green filler to develop bio-composites.