Synthesis of polymeric composites reinforced with short bamboo fibers supported by experiment design

Abstract In this study, short bamboo fibers were obtained using diverse extraction methods. Results obtained by the preliminary fiber traction tests reveal that the fibers obtained using steam explosion equipment possess better mechanical properties than those obtained using other methods. These fibers were used to reinforce a polymeric composite material manufactured using hot compression technique. For this purpose, a 3^k factorial experiment design was applied using fiber and coupling agent concentrations as controllable factor and elasticity modulus as response variable to determine their most appropriate level for developing the best natural composite. From this viewpoint, it was found that the best composite material was obtained by combining 50% w/w fiber and 4% w/w coupling agent, as per the corresponding statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA). For the response variable, the elasticity modulus of the compound increased by 322% (2.91 GPa) in comparison with that of the polymer matrix (0.69 GPa).