Mechanical properties of chicken feather modified soy protein‐based resins and jute fabric‐reinforced green composites

Abstract Agricultural wastes and byproducts offer a vast avenue for replacing commonplace, but environmentally unfavorable, petroleum‐based plastics. Chicken feather fiber (CFF), soy protein isolate (SPI), and jute fabric (JF) are three agricultural materials that can be utilized for creating ‘green’, that is, from nature, resins and composites. This study details the preparation of CFF‐loaded SPI (CFF/SPI) resins and JF/(CFF/SPI) hybrid green composites, both with and without the frequently used toxic crosslinking agent glutaraldehyde (GA), and their respective mechanical properties. Results showed that as CFF loading increased from 0% to 30%, the tensile fracture stress and strain of CFF/SPI resins decreased from 25.2 to 14.3 MPa and from 4.0 to 1.4% respectively, suggesting that CFF acted mostly as filler. JF/(CFF/SPI) composites had higher tensile properties compared to CFF/SPI resins, with fracture stresses and strains ranging from 26.6 to 22.0 MPa and 4.3% to 5.8%, respectively, as CFF loading increased from 0% to 30%. Apart from increasing the flexural modulus, CFF loading did not significantly affect the flexural properties of JF/(CFF/SPI) composites. With any addition of CFF, CFF/SPI resins and JF/(CFF/SPI) composites showed higher mechanical properties than their GA‐crosslinked counterparts, demonstrating that the toxic crosslinker was unnecessary when using the procedure in this work. Highlights Fully green composites produced with viability for furniture applications. Mechanical performance of GA‐free SPI resin negated need of toxic crosslinker. CFF reduced warpage when incorporated into SPI resin, and JF/SPI composite. JF/(CFF/SPI) composites found to be superior mechanically to all CFF/SPI resins. JF/(CFF/SPI) composite mechanically optimized at 10/90 CFF/SPI resin ratio.