Effect of natural weathering degradation on hybrid composite (Banana Peel, Titanium Dioxide, Unsaturated Polyester Resin)

The purpose of this research to investigate on the effect of natural weathering degradation study of unsaturated polyester (UPE) hybrid composite materials that made up from different percentage of banana peels powder (20, 18, 16, 14 and 12%) and titanium dioxide (2, 4, 6 and 8%). The composite used nowadays are made up from synthetic fibre which is not satisfy the sustainability issue and high cost. The making of hybrid composite by using organic reinforcement with inorganic filler will shows new advantages besides become better properties. The fabrication method used to combine banana peels powder and titanium dioxide to produce hybrid composite by using hot press machine. The hybrid composites were exposed to the natural weathering for two weeks before being tested. The chemical constituent, mechanical properties and surface morphological characterizations before and after natural weathering exposure were also evaluated. Characterization done by using universal testing machine (UTM) can be finding out that the U80B12T8 hybrid composite with the highest percentage of titanium dioxide (8% titanium dioxide and 12% banana peels powder) demonstrated the highest tensile properties for both before and after weathering degradation. The surface morphological study conducted by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows that, composite with 20% banana peel reinforced 80% UPE (U80B20) presented the highest degradation with high cracking of banana peels fibre inside the UPE matrix. This cause a big gap between the fibre-matrix interfacial bonding which contribute low composites’ mechanical properties. Hybrid composite with 12% banana peels incorporated with 8% titanium dioxide reinforced 80% UPE (U80B12T8) demonstrated low degradation which is almost no cracks and voids. This proved that the presence of titanium dioxide could reduce the degradation of hybrid composites against natural weathering.