Mechanical Properties of Chicken Feather Reinforced Unsaturated Polyester Composites

In this paper, chicken feather fibers (CFFs) from poultry industries were used as reinforced materials incorporated with unsaturated polyester (UP) to create composites. It is prepared by varied the percentage weight fraction of CFFs by 2wt%, 4wt%, 6wt%, 8wt%, and 10wt%. Alkaline treated potassium hydroxide (KOH) was used to alter the structure of the CFFs. From the results it showed that the tensile strength of the CFFs/UP composites was reduced. The flexural modulus has optimum results of 35.3MPa, improved by 11.86% from pure UP (31.1MPa). For flexural modulus at 2wt% and 4wt% the untreated CFFs/UP performed better performance. However, started at 6wt% onwards, chemically treated fibers surpass untreated fiber. Even though CFFs has unique characteristics properties such as hollow honeycomb structure and low density, the poor adhesion due to its smooth surface roughness and uneven distribution of fiber during mixing contributed to the low strength and flexural values. Thus, treatment caused changes in the structure of the CFFs to increase the surface roughness of the fibers, which improve adhesion.