The Physico-Mechanical Properties of Unsaturated Polyester Resin Filled with Huracrepitan Pod for Wall Tiles Application

Huracrepitan pod was the fibre material used for this research and unsaturated polyester resin was used as the matrix. The huracrepitan pod was crushed with the aid of the Thomas-Willey laboratory mill machine, model 4 and was sieved using a standard sieve of 250 μm. The crushed huracrepitan pod was then soaked in a standard solution of 20% Sodium Hydroxide for 24 hours and washed with distilled water. It was later dried in the oven for an hour for final removal of moisture. I00 g of unsaturated polyester resin was reinforced with huracrepitan pod particles of filler loadings of 0 g, 10 g, 20 g, 30 g, and 40 g., while 90 g, 80 g, 70 g and 60 g of unsaturated polyester resin were reinforced with 20 g, 30 g and 40 g huracrepitan pod.The composites obtained were cut into dumbbell shapes and characterized to assess their performance. The hardness was enhanced to the maximum of 99.00 Shore A at 40% filler loading the percentage water absorption was found to be 0.3g. Pure unsaturated polyester resin recorded hardness of 94.67 Shore A, and water absorption of 0.30g and the percentage elongation optimum was found to be 15% at 40% filler loading and 2.5% at 0% filler loading. The results indicated that the use of huracrepitan pod particles as reinforcement can enhance the properties of polyester composites. It was observed that the samples with the highest filler loading absorbed more impact energy and also increased the elongation percentage. The application of Huracrepitan pod as filler in this work improved the mechanical properties of the thermosetting polymer