Development of tea waste reinforced unsaturated polyester biocomposites

This study present the preparation of unsaturated polyester (UPE) biocomposites filled with tea waste (TW) as natural fiber from agricultural residues by using compression moulding principle as the synthetic fiber polymer composites are costly and give negative effect for environmental. Filler loading ranging from 0 wt.%, 10 wt.%, 20 wt.%, 30 wt.% and 40 wt.% were prepared in order to evaluate effects of tea waste loading to mechanical properties of polyester biocomposites. The main finding showed that the mechanical properties of biocomposites decreased as the weight percentage of tea waste content increased due to lack adhesion between natural fiber and matrix. The optimum tea waste content for biocomposites was at 10 wt.% since the value of tensile and flexural strength were the highest after pure polyester. The surface morphology by using SEM and functional group identification by using FTIR also were observed.