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Enhanced Physico-Mechanical Properties of EGDMA Treated Locally Produced Jute Clothes by Thermal Curing Method

Jute, an important lignocellulosic fiber, can be incorporated in monomer like EGDMA in different ways for achieving desired properties and texture. But its high level of moisture absorption, poor wettability and insufficient adhesion between untreated fiber and the polymer matrix lead to debonding with age. In order to improve the above qualities, adequate surface modification is required. In our present work, jute clothes surface was modified by graft copolymerization of 2-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA). Jute clothes are soaked into 2-ethyle glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) (10–50%) + MeOH and benzoyl peroxide (2%) solution and were cured in an oven at different temperature ranges from 30–70°C for different curing time (15–60 min). Concentration of monomer, soaking time, curing temperature and curing time were optimized with the extent of tensile properties and polymer loading (%PL). The jute clothes samples treated with EGDMA showed extremely higher PL value in thermal curing method and it also showed enhanced tensile properties as well, a prime characteristic of jute clothes for its diversive uses. Tensile strength and elongation is increased about 65–70% compared with untreated virgin Hessian clothes. The monomer concentration was, curing temperature and curing time are optimized as 30% EGDMA, 50°C, curing time 30 min and monomer soaking time 15 min. The fiber surface was pretreated with 0.05–0.5% KMnO4 solutions and grafted with the optimized conditions. It was observed that pretreated jute clothes increase PL and tensile strength while elongation at break was found to decrease. An experiment involving water absorption capacity shows that water uptake by treated sample is much lower than that of the untreated samples. During weathering in accelerated weathering tester, the treated samples exhibited less loss of the physico-mechanical properties than untreated jute clothes.