INVESTIGATION OF PHYSICOCHEMICAL, MECHANICAL, AND MICROSTRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BAMBOO, FLAX, AND GRAPHENE COMPOSITE

Previous study on natural fiber composites has thoroughly examined materials such as jute, hemp, and kenaf in terms of mechanical and thermal behavior. However, hybrid structures such as bamboo powder, flax fiber, and graphene have not been sufficiently explored. Therefore, this study was embarked upon in order to characterise a bio-based composite that consist of bamboo, flax and graphene. Bamboo was harvested, sundried, cut into strips, milled, treated with caustic soda, and sieved with 250, and 425 µm meshes. Flax fiber was procured, cut into small strands and treated with caustic soda while the graphene purchased was ready for application. Epoxy resin was used to bind the combination of bamboo, flax, and graphene at varied weight percentage and grain size. The mixture ratio in weight percentage (wt%) are: 64 bamboo, 24 flax, 12 graphene; 70 bamboo, 18 flax, 12 graphene; and 76 bamboo, 12 flax, 12 graphene. The composites were produced according to standard procedures and were tested for Hardness, Compressive Strength (CS), Tensile Strength (TS), Impact Energy (IE), Flexural Strength (FS), and Wear Resistance (WR). Brinell Hardness Number (BHN) for the combinations are 8.49, 9.76, and 12.39 BHN, respectively. The corresponding CS are 41.01, 29.89, and 49.94 MPa, respectively. The TS are 7.10, 6.33, and 8.54 MPa, respectively. The IE are 9.18, 7.00, and 6.97 J. The FS are 34.10, 44.42, and 46.44 MPa, respectively. The WR are 0.2861, 2.8115, and 0.0648 mm/mm³, respectively. The 76 bamboo, 12 flax, 12 graphene (wt%) exhibited the greatest hardness, CS, TS, and FS, which can be attributed the increased wt% of bamboo, while 64 bamboo, 24 flax, 12 graphene (wt%) showed the highest IE, which can be due to the increased wt% of flax, and 70 bamboo, 18 flax, 12 graphene (wt%) displayed the maximum WR and could have been influenced by the flax. By carefully identifying three different optimal formulations, the results give provide a decision matrix for selecting materials based on the main loading conditions. This study demonstrates that systematic composition modification can produce customized material attributes, enabling application-specific optimization, in contrast to a one-size-fits-all approach. Keywords: Hardness, Compressive strength, Impact energy, Wear resistance, Tensile strength Word count: 346