Tensile and Impact Properties of Different Morphological Parts of Sugar Palm Fibre-Reinforced Unsaturated Polyester Composites

The present study investigated the tensile and impact behaviour of unsaturated polyester composites reinforced by fibre from different parts of the sugar palm tree. Sugar palm fibre i.e. sugar palm frond (SPF), sugar palm bunch (SPB), black sugar palm fibre (ijuk) and sugar palm trunk (SPT) which have high content of cellulose, low density, abundance and low cost, have the potential for polymer reinforcement. All composites were fabricated and labelled as SPF/PE, SPB/PE, ijuk/PE and SPT/PE. It was found that SPF/PE had the highest tensile strength which was 15.179 MPa (+/- 2.425) followed by SPB/PE, ijuk/PE and SPT/PE with 12.809 MPa (+/- 1.580), 11.473 MPa (+/- 0.536) and 9.817 MPa (+/- 1.890) respectively. For the impact strength analysis, SPF/PE showed the highest value (8.091 kJ m(-2)). Generally, SPF/PE had better tensile and impact properties than the other composites, due its high cellulose content.