On the use of wood charcoal filler to improve the properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites

Abstract This study aims to analyze the incorporation of widely available, cheap and biobased waste material such as wood charcoal which is used as filler in natural fiber reinforced polymer composites. Jute woven fabric (1 × 1 plain weave) was used as a natural fiber reinforcement, unsaturated polyester resin was used as matrix material, and wood charcoal powder used as bio-filler to manufacture various composite material formulations of 25% fiber weight fraction. The wood charcoal filler loadings were 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 wt% in the polymer matrix of the composites. The developed composite formulations were tested in terms of mechanical and physicochemical properties. Improved tensile properties were revealed with a 4 wt% filler modification, compared to the reference (unmodified) polymer composite. Nonetheless, further increase of filler (8–20 wt%), led to lower mechanical properties. Thermogravimetric analysis showed increased thermal stability of the 4 wt% charcoal filler modified composite compared to the reference one.