Use of duck feather waste as a reinforcement medium in polymer composites

Abstract

Duck feathers are keratin-based natural fibres. After steaming, drying and milling, duck feather waste (DFW) was transformed into powder and incorporated in unsaturated polyester resin as reinforcing filler to fabricate composite panels. Particle sizes of the DFW powder were in the range of approximately 0.1–0.6 µm, with an average size of 0.21 ± 0.1 µm. Upon successful fabrication of duck feather waste (DFW) composites, different physical, thermal and mechanical investigations were carried out to evaluate their properties along with microscopic observations on fractured surfaces to unravel fracture mechanics. DFW powder was homogeneously distributed throughout the composite and showed hardness of approximately 46 HRC. Average flexural strength and tensile strength were about 24.51 ± 1.8 MPa and 9.27 ± 1.4 MPa respectively. Thermal analysis showed that the composite was stable up to about 250 °C, followed by slow degradation. The presently investigated DFW composite shows lower flexural strength, fatigue life and hardness than that of other natural fibre reinforced composites, as reported in the literature.

Keywords

• Polymer composite
• Duck feather
• Keratin
• Polyester resin