Compression and fracture behavior of leather particulate reinforced polymer composites

Abstract

Strategies are suggested for the waste utilization of industrial leather by preparing composites with epoxy and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The addition of leather improves the average specific compression toughness of epoxy by 29%. The fracture surface analysis suggests the incorporation of leather microparticles leads to a transition of failure mode of epoxy from brittle to ductile. In addition, the dynamic strength of the leather/epoxy composite is found to be 69% higher than that of neat epoxy. However, no significant changes are observed when HDPE is infiltrated with leather. Apart from dispersing the leather particles directly in polymer, a novel strategy is presented here in which leather/HDPE microfibers are prepared and then used to reinforce the epoxy matrix. The specific compression modulus of this composite blend is 8% and 65% higher than epoxy and HDPE, respectively. Fractography is further carried out on the failed specimens to understand the failure mechanism in each composite. A change in the failure mode is observed when epoxy is reinforced either with leather particles or the microfiber. While the failure strength of the microfiber is found to be higher than epoxy, the strength of microfiber/epoxy interface is lower than that of epoxy.