Performance of hybridized bamboo-carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene composites processed using wet laid technique

•A novel hybrid composite was produced using bamboo and carbon fiber reinforced polypropylene composite using the Wet-laid technique.•The effect of (a) fiber length, (b) surface treatment, (c) fiber content, and (d) processing pressure of hybrid composites through compression molding was investigated.•Hybrid composite with 32% CF content showed improved mechanical and vibrational damping properties compared to BF-PP (30/70)•Projected properties determined using the rule of mixture of hybrid composite showed increasing carbon content enhanced the flexural properties. The end-of-life vehicles (ELV) regulations motivate hybrid materials usage in automotive industries to optimize properties at reduced cost and increase eco-friendly designs. This research explores hybrid compositions of natural bamboo fiber and synthetic carbon fiber. The goal of hybridization was to synergistically benefit from each constituent– i.e., sustainability, energy absorption and superior damping from bamboo, and high strength and stiffness from carbon fiber. Carbon fibers (CF), bamboo fibers (BF) and polypropylene (PP) fibers were dispersed in water to produce wet-laid hybrid mats. The mats were compression molded into consolidated panels to obtain the hybrid composite(s) (BF-CF-PP). Four formulations with different fiber-resin weight percent were designed and produced including- BF-PP (30/70), BF-PP (50/50), BF-CF-PP (32/8/60), and BF-CF-PP (8/32/60). The effect of (a) fiber length, (b) surface treatment, (c) fiber content, and (d) consolidation pressure on the mechanical properties were examined. The improved mechanical (flexural strength 76.4 MPa, flexural modulus 4.1 GPa, ILSS 12.4 MPa and impact strength 49.9 KJ/m2) and vibrational damping (1.05%) properties showed that the BF-CF-PP (8/32/60) provided higher properties compared to the other variants. The projected properties at various stoichiometric ratios of carbon and bamboo fiber revealed that the properties of hybrid composites could be tailored to produce desirable, cost-effective, and sustainable automotive components. [Display omitted]