Effect of Iron Phosphate Glass on the Physico-mechanical Properties of Jute Fabric-reinforced Polypropylene-based Composites

Jute fabric (hessian cloth)-reinforced polypropylene (PP)-based composites (30 wt% fiber) were prepared by compression molding. Tensile strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM), bending strength (BS), bending modulus (BM), and impact strength (IS) of the composites were found to be 28, 280, 31, 440 MPa, and 18 kJ/m(2), respectively. Iron phosphate glass powder (5 wt%) was added (as filler) onto jute fabrics by hand lay-up technique and then PP-based composites were fabricated. The mechanical properties of the jute + glass-reinforced PP-based composites (30 wt% fiber) were found to increase significantly compared to that of jute + PP composite. Degradation tests of the composites were performed up to 6 months in soil medium at ambient conditions and reported slow degradation of mechanical properties of jute + glass composite over jute composite.