Microstructural Characteristics and Mechanical Properties of the Green Composites Reinforced Bamboo Optimized the Treated Parameters

Nguyen Thuc Boi Huyen

Abstract

Concrete and steel are traditional building materials with high strength and stress. They are usedeffectively in civil construction, structures of bridges and others. According to the current trend, theconstruction materials have more attention for low density and high durability which produced fromnatural materials; moreover, they are able to be recycled and reused. In this study, the green compositeswere fabricated based on the highly performance epoxy combined with bamboo to get high flexuralstrength. The bamboo was removed some cellulosic impurities by treatment via 2 stages: (1) in a mixtureof NaOH and Na2SO3; (2) H2O2 solution to enhance the compatibility among the matrix of epoxy andreinforcing materials. The important parameters of the extraction process such as type of extract,concentration of components and treatment time were investigated and selected. The bamboo sampleswere analyzed for the microstructure using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SEM imagesshowed that the treated bamboo fibres arranged in certain order with clear orientation. Themorphologies are completely different from the structure of the original bamboo material (withouttreatment). The vibrations of chemical functional groups via Fourier modified infrared spectrum (FTIR)showed that most the absorption intensity of peaks decreased significantly, especially at thewavenumbers of 1734, 1492 and 1261 cm-1. The absorption intensity of lignin characteristics becamevery small or disappeared. The above analytical results demonstrate an important change in thestructure and composition of bamboo by chemical treatment. In particular, the outstanding growth inflexural and tensile strength of about 300–500% compared to the original bamboo raw material provesthe superiority of green composite materials. This shows the potential of using bamboo to graduallyreplace steel in green building materials that not only use raw bamboo but must come from chemicallytreated bamboo-reinforced composites.

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