Annealed peanut shell biochar as potential reinforcement for aloe vera fiber-epoxy biocomposite: mechanical, thermal conductivity, and dielectric properties

The mechanical, thermal conductivity, and dielectric behavior of peanut shell biochar toughened aloe vera fiber–reinforced epoxy resin composites were studied in this present study. The main aim of this research was to study the effect of adding graphitized biochar into the epoxy resin along with aloe vera fiber in load-bearing, thermal, and electrical conductivity properties. To prepare the annealed biochar, peanut shell wastes were first pyrolyzed at 400 °C and subsequently annealed at the temperature range between 1000 and 1050 °C with [Fe(NO 3 ) 3 ] catalyst for about 3 h. The composites were prepared using hand layup method and post cured at elevated temperature. The mechanical, thermal conductivity, and dielectric properties of the composites were analyzed to identify the effectiveness of reinforcements. It is noted that the RAB2 was found to have a highest tensile and flexural strength of 160 and 212 MPa. However, a maximum dosage up to 5vol% in the resin reduced the resin’s load-bearing capacity. It is further noted that the composite material’s thermal conductivity has been enhanced by the addition of biochar. RAB3’s thermal conductivity was found to be the highest at 0.54w/mK. Similarly, the dielectric constant and loss of composite were improved after the addition of biochar particle. The composite designation RAB3 had a maximum constant of 7.2 and a loss of 0.8. These epoxy-based composites with better mechanical, thermal, and dielectric properties could be utilized to make food processing containers and medical device processing equipments.